Submitting Campus

Daytona Beach

Department

Civil Engineering

Document Type

Article

Publication/Presentation Date

6-25-2023

Abstract/Description

This study aims to investigate the impact of exposure to critical narratives on students' abilities to recognize ethical dilemmas and broader impacts in engineering work. Critical narratives are place-based stories that engage students and help them enhance their critical thinking skills by making connections between the narratives, broader impacts of engineering work, and their responsibility to address these issues. The effectiveness of the critical narrative intervention was assessed by implementing discussion-based assignments around three critical narratives, which required students to listen to the narrative, respond to focus questions, engage with their peers, and reflect on the process. The intervention was completed by 58 students as part of their ethics module in a senior capstone design engineering course, while a comparison group of 60 students did not receive the intervention. Both groups completed a project-group discussion assignment where they were asked to identify and discuss ethical dilemmas and broader impacts encountered while working on their capstone design projects. Researchers developed a 5-point rubric to evaluate the responses to focus questions and reflections on the process. Results indicated that the study group that received the intervention achieved higher average scores on each of the three criteria that were evaluated, but lower scores on the reflection component. The accompanying paper will discuss the theoretical motivation relying on critical narratives, deployment of the intervention, and statistical analysis of the results.

Publisher

American Society for Engineering Education

Location

Baltimore, MD

Paper Number

39165

Number of Pages

20

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