Thesis
QUANTITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AND PRACTITIONER PERCEPTIONS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
01/2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004465
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/125312
Abstract
The following thesis details the investigation into the perceptions of undergraduate students and practitioners in civil engineering through quantitative analysis. The aim of the study was to identify the perceptions of undergraduate students on lifelong learning (LLL) and the expected importance of skills for practice and compare those with the skills identified as important by practicing engineers and their experiences with LLL to identify potential gaps in current engineering curricula. Existing literature has demonstrated that nontechnical skills are equally important in practice as technical skills, but findings are often generalized across all engineering disciplines and thus further investigation on discipline specific skills is necessary. The study was conducted through the distribution of quantitative survey instruments, and the thesis reviews the development, pre-testing, distribution, and data analysis processes for the instruments. Findings highlight that student perceptions and realities of practicing engineers are relatively aligned except for a disconnect in the importance of technical skills. This disconnect is highlighted by a low correlation in the ranking of items (rs) between the two populations of 0.38, indicating a weak level of agreement. Study data in conjunction with existing literature also suggests informal communication skills are more important and frequently applied than formal communication skills, with informal communication skills often ranked first or second in their respective categories. Regarding lifelong learning, findings encouragingly showed that 98.4% of undergraduate students anticipate continuing to learn in practice. Finally, data also supports that mentorship is critical in the early-career development of engineers, as 45.9% of practitioners and 46.4% of undergraduate students identified mentorship as “Very Important”.
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Details
- Title
- QUANTITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AND PRACTITIONER PERCEPTIONS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING
- Creators
- Logan Dickman
- Contributors
- Adam Phillips (Advisor)Amanda Hohner (Committee Member)Homero Murzi (Committee Member)Karl Olsen (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 144
- Identifiers
- 99900881631601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis