2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering in early education provides the foundation for the future of innovation. Reinforcing Habits of Mind (HoM) at an early age is crucial for expanding students’ higher order thinking, potential for lifelong learning, and sense of agency in their learning experiences. HoM is defined as a set of dispositions that describe how people successfully deal with unexpected life events, and can be applied to various disciplines such as engineering.

This study addressed two research questions: (1) Which HoM were articulated by children as they reflected upon their participation in a home-based engineering program? (2) What patterns of the children’s vocabulary align with the HoM framework? An exploratory mixed-methods design was used to examine young students’ reflections upon the process of completing low-stakes engineering projects in their home.

The participants were 29 children ranging from second grade to sixth grade. The children and their families were part of a larger program in which they received researcher-developed engineering kits that supported their engagement in the engineering design process in their home environment. After they engaged in the ill-structured engineering task with family members at home, children joined an online show-and-tell meeting to show their prototype to others while answering various questions about their processes, frustrations, and successes. Example questions include (a) “Tell us about a time you felt like an engineer” and (b) “Find something that represents how you felt when working with someone in your family.” Some children only joined one show-and-tell while others attended six show-and-tells.

To answer the first research question, two researchers independently watched and collectively discussed 13 hour-long video recordings. After the children’s dialogues were transcribed across videos, quotes were categorized using a framework that includes Learning Habits of Mind and Engineering Habits of Mind. This study also accounted for aesthetic considerations and signs of empathy, which were not specified in the original framework. To answer the second research question, the transcripts were analyzed within Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a validated text analysis tool that analyzes over 100 dimensions of text.

Initial findings revealed “Resourcefulness,” “Adapting/Improving,” and “Systems Thinking” as the most common Habits of Mind expressed by children through the show-and-tell meetings. The LIWC analysis highlighted how children's articulation of Learning and Engineering Habits of Mind were logical (i.e., analytical), confident (i.e., clout), and impersonal. Moreover, children’s words were product-oriented, predominantly focusing on the materials and tools utilized to create their prototype. Few words centered on the emotional experience and cognitive proactivity of completing the projects.

The significance of this study highlights how engaging in hands-on engineering projects in the home has the potential to develop children’s dispositions and ways of thinking common to engineers. The children’s expressive variability, the interviewers’ open-ended questions, and lack of data on nonverbal communication introduced challenges to the analysis. Future research may consider how the design of an engineering program may shape the development of HoM in children.