The Role of Engineering Doctoral Students' Future Goals on Perceived Task Usefulness

Abstract

in the PRiDE Research Group. She is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Engineering Education. She expects to graduate May of 2019. Her research interests include student development of identity and motivation in graduate engineering research and teaching environments. She is also interested in k-12 integration of engineering in math and science curricula.

WIP: A Case for Disaggregating Demographic Data

“…Existing research in intersectionality focuses on undergraduate engineering students and uses gender and race as the primary intersectional identities [8]. While we are focused on graduate engineering students, literature on engineering graduate students is limited [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Therefore, our research uses literature on undergraduate students as a starting point for both intersectionality and engineering identity.…”

“…Performance/competence, interest, and recognition have been identified as key components of engineering identity for undergraduate students [19]. Graduate engineering identity is beginning to be explored, including how it is similar to undergraduate engineering identity [9][10][11][12]. This research attempts to explore potential differences in the experiences of engineering graduate students by looking at the intersections of identities while comparing the strength of students' engineering identity.…”

Development and Testing of an Instrument to Understand Engineering Doctoral Students’ Identities and Motivations

“…For instance, graduate students who strongly identified as engineers took a more agentic role in defining what 'engineering' meant, recognizing that the field is broad and that the stereotypical definitions can be limiting [11]. Similarly, graduate students used past experiences to clarify goals and describe their future place in the field, unlike undergraduates who often only considered present performance [12].…”

Nonacademic Career Pathways for Engineering Doctoral Students: An Evaluation of an NSF Research Traineeship Program

“…Participants reported mixed reactions around the individual development plans (IDPs). While having goals has been found to increase perceptions of task usefulness for engineering graduate students (Tsugawa-Nieves et al, 2017), the act of setting goals was particularly helpful for several students. However, the aspects of the IDPs related to evaluating their own strengths and weaknesses were perceived by students as far less useful.…”