A Survey of Freshman Engineering Student Attitudes Among First-Semester Mechanical Engineering Students Session of June
2020 in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak
Bong Nee Mel1*
1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Politeknik Kuching Sarawak, Sarawak, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 February 2021 | Published: 1 March 2021
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Abstract: This paper focuses on identifying engineering attitudes of first-semester mechanical engineering students, session of June 2020 in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak. This study also determines the changes in those attitudes during their first-semester study. The Pittsburg Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey (PFEAS) was conducted twice to the students, pre- survey at the beginning of the semester 1 and post-survey at the end of the semester 1. The analysis used in this survey were descriptive statistics and paired sample t-test. The overall survey results found that the first-semester mechanical engineering students in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak had very encouraging positive engineering attitudes in the aspect of persistence in engineering, perceptions of engineers, confidence in the subjects and skills and studying, working in groups and personal abilities. Besides, there was a very small difference between the male and the female students towards their engineering attitudes in study except for the aspect of confidence in the subjects and skills which the male students possessed more advantages than the female students. The survey results also showed that most of the engineering attitudes were increased from the beginning of semester to the end of semester.
The survey also revealed that the students’ confidence in their ability to succeed in engineering study, getting a job after graduation and mechanically inclined were significantly changed with the times. More importantly, all students remained with their intentions to stay in engineering field with no desired to change their major or course. This survey may has provided the useful information for the Department of Mechanical Engineering to build motivation and confidence of engineering students as well as the effort of attraction and retention of students in engineering major.
Keywords: engineering attitudes, Pittsburg Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey, mechanical engineering
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1. Introduction
Recently, the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is the global health crisis which forcing all humans to live with new normal. This pandemic has also shifted the conventional education system to online learning. However, in virtual teaching and learning process, educators may face difficulties to recognize the students’ real attitudes for instance, the engineering attitudes possess by the engineering students in their early study. Therefore, the author had conducted The Pittsburg Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey (PFEAS) among mechanical engineering students, semester 1 session of June 2020 in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak. The purpose of this survey was to determine how attitudes towards engineering study of this group of respondents was. This finding was important for the engineering department to guide, motivate and improve
the retention of the engineering students towards the goal of succeed in their engineering studies until the final semester.
2. Literature Review
The Pittsburg Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey (PFEAS) was developed by Associate Professor Dr. Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Professor Dr. Cynthia J. Atman and Professor Dr. Larry J. Shuman at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is an important survey tool in engineering education to elicit Freshman Engineers’ opinions and feelings about engineering. This assessment of attitudes can also be used as a tool to evaluate and improve the educational process. The items in PFEAS consisted of the aspects of general impressions of engineering, financial influences for studying engineering, engineering's contribution to society, work engineers do / engineering profession, enjoyment of maths and science courses, perception of engineering as exact science, family influences on studying engineering, confidence in skills, social and study habits. The definition of each measure in PFEAS could be referred to Besterfield-Sacre et. al. (1996).
There are a lot of prior works to identify how student’s attitude towards engineering and its implication on a student’s decision to pursue an engineering study and persist in the program.
According to Olson et. al. (2013), the academic research in this area had focused on ways to attract and retain engineering majors with the aim of predicting whether a student will persist in engineering, change majors, or even leave their study. They also concluded that the confidence of students in their technical aptitude and ability to apply mathematics and sciences to engineering problems might influence the retention.
Depieri and Roseli de Deus Lopes (2014) in their research focused to Brazilian high school students in terms of student attitudes to engineering and engineers, and how these influenced them to take engineering majors at university. According to the researchers, high school students needed to be enhanced with pre-engineering concepts, so that they could plan and prepare themselves for the engineering majors at university later. The survey results showed that the high school students’ attitudes to engineering were positive. Besides, the researchers also mentioned that excelling in mathematics and sciences would surely benefit the freshmen.
Watson et. al. (2015) conducted the PFEAS to measure the student attitudes towards engineering in their new designed freshmen course of Introduction to Civil Engineering, The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at The Citadel. They assessed the effectiveness of this new freshmen course and ongoing efforts to improve it. According to them, the results indicated that the revised Introduction to Civil Engineering course achieved most of its intended goals with students significantly more confident in their knowledge of the engineering profession after participated this course.
Galbraith et. al. (2018) explored the changes in the attitudes of their typical engineering students in the College of Engineering (CoE) at the University of Arkansas during the first semester study. Hence, the PFEAS was conducted twice to measure the changes in engineering attitudes during the beginning of fall semester and the beginning of spring semester. The results showed that the perception and persistence in engineering as well as the campus involvement (social habits) increased significantly. Besides, the students’ confidence in engineering-related subjects mostly showed an increase too. This supported by Besterfield-Sacre et. al. (1996) in their study on changes in the freshman engineers’ attitudes at University of Pittsburgh and North Carolina State University. According to Besterfield-Sacre et. al. (1996), there were
significant changes as well as the trends that occurred between the pre- and post-surveys for the student attitudes towards engineering.
Besterfield-Sacre et. al. (2001) conducted the PFEAS twice in their study on attitudes of freshman engineering students due to gender and ethnic diversity. They eventually found that the female engineering students’ attitudes were more negative than male students, and they had lower confidence, abilities to succeed and perceptions in engineering. In contrast, those female students were more comfortable with their study habits. Besides, Bielefeldt (2009) also conducted her survey among first year engineering students at the University of Colorado at Boulder on gender differences in students engineering attitudes. She concluded that female students less favoured on how engineering benefited the society than male students. However, the female students showed a greater understanding of cultural differences and its impacts to the appropriate engineering solutions to problems.
Although The Pittsburg Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey (PFEAS) consisted of 50 items in a survey, the researchers still can revise and identify the most relevant items to be used in their survey. Galbraith et. al. (2018) in their survey used a group of 16 questions that they identified to be most relevant to the analysis. Watson et. al. (2015) in their survey used 50 items, Olson et. al. (2013) used 20 items while Depieri and Roseli de Deus Lopes (2014) used 47 items in their survey.
3. Methodology
This study was a descriptive survey. The Pittsburg Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey (PFEAS) was used to gather information related to the objectives of the study. The respondents were drawn from the Mechanical Engineering students of semester 1 session of June 2020 in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak. This survey was conducted online due to the pandemic COVID- 19. The PFEAS was conducted twice to the students, pre-survey at the beginning of the semester 1 and post-survey at the end of the semester 1. The PFEAS questionnaire was obtained from the website of University of Pittsburgh with permission from Associate Professor Dr.
Mary Besterfield-Sacre, University of Pittsburgh.
The objectives of this survey were stated as below:
(a) to explore the engineering attitudes, possess by the first-semester mechanical engineering students.
(b) to determine any differences in the student engineering attitudes due to gender difference.
(c) to investigate the student engineering attitudes changes with the times.
The author selected and used 30 items of PFEAS in the survey. These items were shown in Table 1, and had been categorized in 4 groups for the purpose of later analysis and discussion:
(a) persistence in engineering (item a1 – a8), (b) perceptions of engineers (item b1 – b8),
(c) confidence in the subjects and skills (item c1 – c6), and
(d) studying, working in groups and personal abilities (item d1 – d8).
The analysis used in this survey were the descriptive statistics and the paired sample t-test with a 95% confidence interval.
Table 1: The list of items used in this Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey.
Item Question
a1 The future benefits of studying engineering are worth the effort.
a2 I have no desire to change to another major (ex. commerce study, art, English, history, etc.).
a3 My parent(s) are making me study engineering.
a4 An engineering degree / diploma will guarantee me a job when I graduate.
a5 I enjoy the subjects of science and mathematics the most.
a6 I expect that engineering will be a rewarding career.
a7 From what I know, engineering is boring.
a8 I will have no problem finding a job when I have obtained an engineering degree / diploma.
b1 Engineers contribute more to making the world a better place than people in most other occupations.
b2 Engineering involves finding precise answers to problems.
b3 Engineers are creative.
b4 Engineers have contributed greatly to fixing problems in the world.
b5 Engineers are innovative.
b6 Engineers are well paid.
b7 Engineering is an occupation that is respected by other people.
b8 My parent(s) want me to be an engineer.
c1 I am confident that I could do well in engineering subjects such as Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Strength of Materials, etc.
c2 I am confident that I could do well in engineering practical such as Mechanical Workshop Practices (machining, welding, etc.).
c3 I am confident that I could do well in engineering / technical drawings.
c4 I am confident that I could do well in engineering mathematics.
c5 I am confident of my computer skills.
c6 I am confident of my writing and speaking skills.
d1 I need to spend more time studying than I currently do.
d2 I consider myself mechanically / technically inclined.
d3 Studying in a group is better than studying by myself.
d4 I feel confident in my ability to succeed in engineering.
d5 I am good at designing things.
d6 I have strong problem-solving skills.
d7 I am confident about my current study habits or routine.
d8 I enjoy problems that can be solved in different ways.
4. Discussion and Conclusion
There are 4 mechanical engineering programs offer in Mechanical Engineering Department of Politeknik Kuching Sarawak namely Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (Manufacturing), Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (Automotive) and Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (Air Conditioning & Refrigeration). There were 140 engineering students of semester 1 session of June 2020 in Mechanical Engineering Department answered this survey. Table 2 showed the demographic data of the respondents in this survey.
Table 2: Distribution of respondents of semester 1 session of June 2020 in Mechanical Engineering Department, Politeknik Kuching Sarawak.
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering (Manufacturing)
Mechanical Engineering (Automotive)
Mechanical Engineering (Air
Conditioning &
Refrigeration)
Total
Male 45 17 31 4 97
Female 33 7 1 2 43
Total 78 24 32 6 140
Figure 1: Total of responds (early semester 1) that had been categorized into two groups. Group 1 (blue) with total responds of agree (A) and strongly agree (SA) while Group 2 (brown) with total responds of
disagree (D) and strongly disagree (SD).
Figure 1 showed the overall survey results demonstrated by the mechanical engineering students of semester 1 in their early semester studies. For Figure 1, the positive and negative attitudes for each survey item was grouped into Group 1 and 2. Group 1 represented the sum of “agree” and “strongly agree” responds labelled as (A+SA) while Group 2 represented the sum of “disagree” and “strongly disagree” responds labelled as (D+SD). The findings showed that the engineering students in this survey had very encouraging positive attitudes towards
-150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150
a1. The future benefits of studying engineering are worth…
a2. I have no desire to change to another major (ex.…
a3. My parent(s) are making me study engineering.
a4. An engineering degree / diploma will guarantee me a…
a5. I enjoy the subjects of science and mathematics the…
a6. I expect that engineering will be a rewarding career.
a7. From what I know, engineering is boring.
a8. I will have no problem finding a job when I have…
b1. Engineers contribute more to making the world a…
b2. Engineering involves finding precise answers to…
b3. Engineers are creative.
b4. Engineers have contributed greatly to fixing problems…
b5. Engineers are innovative.
b6. Engineers are well paid.
b7. Engineering is an occupation that is respected by…
b8. My parrent(s) want me to be an engineer.
c1. I am confident that I could do well in engineering…
c2. I am confident that I could do well in engineering…
c3. I am confident that I could do well in engineering /…
c4. I am confident that I could do well in engineering…
c5. I am confident of my computer skills.
c6. I am confident of my writing and speaking skills.
d1. I need to spend more time studying than I currently do.
d2. I consider myself mechanically / technically inclined.
d3. Studying in a group is better than studying by myself.
d4. I feel confident in my ability to succeed in engineering.
d5. I am good at designing things.
d6. I have strong problem-solving skills.
d7. I am confident about my current study habits or…
d8. I enjoy problems that can be solved in different ways.
Group 1 (A + SA) Group 2 (D + SD)
engineering for the aspect of persistence in engineering, perceptions of engineers, confidence in the subjects and skills and studying, working in groups and personal abilities.
From Figure 1, the only significant negative attitude related to the survey was item a7, “From what I know, engineering is boring.”, in which Group 2 (D+SD) presented higher scores than Group 1 (A+SA), was merely due to the negatively phrased sentences about engineering.
Therefore, the parameters of this negative attitude shown in Figure 1 meant inversely that higher positive attitudes towards engineering were shown by the respondents. Besides, the item a3, “My parent(s) are making me study engineering.” also showed a very small portion of negative attitudes due to possibility that some parents had forced the respondents to study only engineering major. The item d6, “I have strong problem-solving skills.” showed almost equally positive and negative attitudes. This indicated that almost half of them confident with their problem-solving skills in the early semester.
The item a2, “I have no desire to change to another major (ex. commerce study, art, English, history, etc.).”, item a4, “An engineering degree / diploma will guarantee me a job when I graduate.” and item d4, “I feel confident in my ability to succeed in engineering.” represented the engineering students’ positive yet encouraging engineering attitudes as well. This means the engineering students of semester 1 will have the retention to study engineering majors until the final semester and confident that they will succeed in their study and career. Besides, most of them also had good positive opinions and feelings about the future benefits of studying engineering (item a1), their higher expectation of engineering as a rewarding career (item a6) and their confidence in finding a job easily (item a8). At the same time, the respondents also agreed that they enjoyed the subjects of science and mathematics which a must in engineering major (item a5).
From the Figure 1 too, most of the students also had positive perceptions of engineers such as engineers are creative (item b3), innovative (item b5), respected by other people (item b7) and well paid (item b6). Meanwhile, they also showed the positive perceptions of the engineers’
contribution to the better world (item b1), engineers’ routine of finding precise answers to problems (item b2) and fixing them in the world (item b4). Furthermore, this survey also revealed that most of the students’ parents preferred them to become an engineer (item b8).
For the aspect of confidence in the subjects and skills, most of the students in this survey showed their confidence in the engineering subjects (item c1), engineering practical (item c2), engineering drawings (item c3) and engineering mathematics (item c4) during their study. In addition, they also showed positively in the computer skills (item c5), writing, and speaking skills (item c6). This was very encouraging since they had possessed those positive engineering attitudes to boost their interests and efforts until succeed in their engineering study.
The engineering students in this survey also showed the positive attitudes towards their studying, working in groups and personal abilities. Most of them agreed that they need to spend more time in their study (item d1), so that they will more understand and master the engineering knowledge during their study. Besides, most of them also preferred to study in a group (item d3). They were also felt confident with their study habits (item d7) and their abilities to be succeed in engineering (item d4). Only half of them agreed that they had strong problem- solving skills (item d6) even though most of them enjoyed the problem solving that could be solved in the different ways (item d8). Furthermore, they considered themselves as mechanically or technically inclined (item d2) since after 4-months they studied in engineering major and interested in designing things as well (item d5).
Table 3 showed the mean score of respondents according to their gender with the categorized 4 aspects of engineering attitudes in this survey. From this table, the male students were more positive than female students in early and even at the end of their first-semester study.
However, the differences between the male and the female students in the aspect of persistence in engineering and the perceptions of engineers were very small (with the percentage difference ranged up to 1.34%). The aspect of confidence in the subjects and skills showed the highest percentage difference up to 5.02% at early semester but had decreased to 4.17% at the end of the first semester. Meanwhile, for the aspect of studying, working in groups and personal abilities, the percentage difference between the male and the female students were less than 3%.
Table 3: Mean score of respondents according to gender in this survey for early and end of semester 1.
Mean (early semester) Mean (end of semester) Categories of Items in PFEAS Male Female Percentage
Difference
Male Female Percentage Difference
Persistence in engineering 3.70 3.69 0.27% 3.75 3.70 1.34%
Perceptions of engineers 4.08 4.05 0.74% 4.15 4.12 0.73%
Confidence in the subjects and
skills 3.88 3.69 5.02% 3.92 3.76 4.17%
Studying, working in groups and
personal abilities 3.90 3.83 1.81% 3.96 3.86 2.56%
Table 4 showed the attitude changes with the times for first-semester mechanical engineering students. There were 17 items displayed the significant change while the remaining 13 items with no significant change. For the aspect of persistence in engineering, item a4, a6, a7 and a8 showed significant change. This indicated there was an increase of the student’s confidence in getting a job after graduate, their opinions of engineering will be a rewarding career, engineering is not boring (negatively phrased sentence) and no problem in finding a job. The item a2 related to the persistence of students in engineering major did not change significantly from the early to the end of semester 1. This fact was important for the engineering department to plan, motivate and retain students in engineering majors. The enjoyment of science and mathematics did not show any changes (item a5) as well as the items related to future benefits of studying engineering (item a1) and parents want them to study engineering (item a3).
The items related to the perceptions of engineers such as engineers found the precise answers (item b2), creative (item b3), engineers’ contribution (item b4) and engineers were well paid (item b6) showed a significant increase. This could be explained that those students had formed a strong perception towards engineers as time passed by. For item b6, “engineers are well paid”, it seen that students already had this higher expectation. Other items in this aspect of perceptions of engineers such as “Engineers contribute more to making the world a better place than people in most other occupations” (item b1), “Engineers are innovative” (item b5),
“Engineering is an occupation that is respected by other people” (item b7) and “My parent(s) want me to be an engineer” (item b8) did not show any changes with the times.
The items related to the confidence in the subjects and skills (item c2 – engineering practical;
item c3 – engineering drawings and item c5 – computer skills) mostly showed an increase. This means that students learned well and felt more confident in those subjects. However, the item c1 for engineering subjects, c4 for engineering mathematics and c6 for writing and speaking skills did not show any significant changes. Therefore, activities and initiatives may be needed to build confidence of students in those academic subjects and writing or speaking skills.
Table 4: Attitude changes with the time for mechanical engineering students of semester 1 (N = 140)
Item µ-begin µ-end σ-begin σ-end d P-value Change
a1 4.21 4.23 0.737 0.703 0.02 0.158 NS
a2 4.21 4.24 0.534 0.503 0.03 0.083 NS
a3 3.20 3.21 1.213 1.204 0.01 0.158 NS
a4 3.96 4.27 0.808 0.446 0.31 0.000 S
a5 4.05 4.04 0.713 0.521 -0.01 0.863 NS
a6 4.14 4.28 0.798 0.612 0.14 0.000 S
a7 1.96 1.62 1.055 0.629 -0.34 0.000 S
a8 3.83 3.98 0.873 0.744 0.15 0.000 S
b1 4.05 4.06 0.790 0.751 0.01 0.319 NS
b2 3.86 4.14 0.801 0.539 0.28 0.000 S
b3 4.39 4.43 0.695 0.625 0.04 0.014 S
b4 4.24 4.32 0.745 0.615 0.08 0.004 S
b5 4.35 4.39 0.739 0.663 0.04 0.132 NS
b6 3.94 4.00 0.841 0.777 0.06 0.006 S
b7 4.09 4.11 0.754 0.700 0.02 0.103 NS
b8 3.69 3.70 0.968 0.950 0.01 0.158 NS
c1 3.69 3.71 0.881 0.869 0.02 0.319 NS
c2 4.01 4.06 0.835 0.732 0.05 0.011 S
c3 4.06 4.15 0.770 0.678 0.09 0.004 S
c4 3.89 3.91 0.828 0.813 0.02 0.319 NS
c5 3.85 3.94 0.856 0.737 0.09 0.001 S
c6 3.43 3.45 0.815 0.771 0.02 0.083 NS
d1 4.13 4.26 0.847 0.661 0.13 0.000 S
d2 3.69 3.62 0.795 0.734 -0.07 0.007 S
d3 3.70 3.72 0.854 0.805 0.02 0.441 NS
d4 4.01 4.07 0.678 0.631 0.06 0.020 S
d5 4.25 4.29 0.907 0.859 0.04 0.096 NS
d6 3.04 3.07 1.052 1.036 0.03 0.045 S
d7 3.95 4.04 0.808 0.728 0.09 0.001 S
d8 4.26 4.38 0.723 0.543 0.12 0.000 S
µ-begin: mean for early semester µ-end: mean for the end of semester
σ-begin: standard deviation for early semester σ-end: standard deviation for end of semester d: difference = µ-end - µ-begin P-value: Statistical significant
Change: “NS” – Not Significantly; “S” – Significantly
As for the items related to “studying, working in groups and personal abilities”, there were 6 items showed encouraging significant changes for instance the item d1, “I need to spend more time studying than I currently do”, item d2, “I consider myself mechanically / technically inclined”, item d4, “I feel confident in my ability to succeed in engineering”, item d6, “I have strong problem-solving skills”, item d7, “I am confident about my current study habits or routine” and item d8, “I enjoy problems that can be solved in different ways”. This was likely due to after 4 months study in first-semester, students had more insight views and experiences of their study habits and abilities in engineering major. What was encouraging was the increase of their confidence in ability to succeed in engineering which the engineering department favourable more. Meanwhile, only item d3, “Studying in a group is better than studying by myself” and item d5, “I am good at designing things” showed no significant changes.
As a conclusion, the overall survey results found that the mechanical engineering students of semester 1 in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak had very encouraging positive engineering attitudes.
There was a very small difference between the male and the female engineering students towards their engineering attitudes in study and career. Furthermore, the survey also found that most of the engineering attitudes showed the significant changes from the beginning till the end of their first-semester study in engineering major.
This survey may have provided important information for the Department of Mechanical Engineering to build motivation and confidence of engineering students as well as the effort of attraction and retention of students in engineering majors. In addition, the department may also educate an engineering student prepared to meet the challenges encountered in this new century and pandemic COVID-19 by providing engineering career talk and engineering-related- seminar.
Furthermore, it is suggested that this study can be extended by favourable to enlarge its scope to determine the Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Attitudes for other engineering freshmen (students) for example the civil, electrical or petrochemical engineering in future studies. A correlation study may also carry out to examine the relationship of engineering attitudes that well-developed among students to the academic performance.
Acknowledgment
Author would like to acknowledge Associate Professor Dr. Mary Besterfield-Sacre, University of Pittsburgh for her permission to allow author to use the PFEAS in this study.
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