WIP: Bridging Cognitive and
Motivational Psychology to
Combat Shortage of Engineers
Martin Reisslein, Roxana Moreno,
and Jana Reisslein
Arizona State University
University of New Mexico
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Challenge and Overall Approach
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Challenge:
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Technology based U.S. society requires skilled
engineering workforce
Low popularity of engineering among domestic
students
Overall Approach:
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Cross-disciplinary team of engineers and
psychologists
Uncover fundamental techniques to increase
effectiveness of engineering ed/ popularity of eng.
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Prominent Causes for Eng. Shortage
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Low awareness of engineering
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Less than half of U.S. population aware of
what engineers do
Less than quarter of U.S. females
Overly challenging eng. programs
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Significant attrition from freshman to
graduating senior
Persistence in eng. programs low
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Approach: Bridging Psych. with Eng.
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Cognitive Psychology
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Motivational Psychology
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Minimize cognitive load, foster self-efficacy
Maximize persistence
Rigorous evaluations
Importance of cultural context, social relevance
Bridge these two psych. areas with
engineering, computer science
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Related Work
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Increasing effectiveness of eng. ed. has
received significant interest, e.g., individual
learning styles
Also, successful engineering approaches
have been investigated, e.g., teaming
This work complementary by focusing on
psychological underpinnings of engineering
learning
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Input from Cognitive Psych.
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Applicability of techniques for fostering selfefficacy, e.g., worked examples, multimedia
learning
Primarily investigated with psychology
students in social science/probability
domains
Do these techniques carry over to
engineering?
Extend and adapt to engineering, or identify
principles unique to engineering
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Input from Motivational Psych.
Impact of cultural context and social
relevance on persistence
E.g., Keller’s ARCS (Attention, Relevance,
Confidence, Satisfaction) model of
motivational design:
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Expose learner to instruction that relates to
previous experiences, needs, interests
But, large portion of population unaware of what
engineers do
Unique challenge of engineering ed.
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Preliminary Results
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Cognitive aspects of effective representation of
engineering instructional content
High school students w/o prior engineering ed.
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College level engineering students
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Textual representation of instructional prompts more
effective than graphical representation, effect size Cohen’s
f = 0.38
Text/graphics combination more effective than text/
equations combination, effect size Cohen’s f = 0.31
Indications of importance of appropriate learning
content representation
Comprehensive, rigorous study needed
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Dissemination
Research outcome: techniques with
rigorously verified levels of effectiveness
Derive guidelines for educational modules
Employ to
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Increase awareness/ interest among high school
students
Reduce cognitive load in eng. courses
Increase persistence in engineering programs
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Conclusion
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WIP to thoroughly understand
cognitive and motivational psych.
principles of eng ed.
Rigorously verified in empirical studies
Important component in effort to
attract and retain qualified students
and alleviate engineer shortage
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