2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper is a Work in Progress (WIP). Quantitative Literacy (QL) encompasses many of the competencies professional engineers need. QL is the ability to engage in context-specific quantitative activities for problem-solving by collecting, understanding, processing, interpreting, synthesizing, and displaying numerical information for effective communication. QL also includes numerical skills, communication of quantitative information, and dispositions and beliefs in quantitative activities. Thus, QL is multi-dimensional with the dimensions of disposition, cognition, and beliefs. Within this framework, cognition comprises sub-dimensions of content, reasoning, and communication. While engineers and engineering educators agree that QL is critical for success as an engineering student and professional, little is known about the expectations of QL for engineering students as they begin their college engineering studies. As a result, existing instruments for measuring QL are designed for a general population and do not assess engineering-specific QL needs.

This work-in-progress paper reports on part of a larger study that aims to develop an evidence-based Student Model for future assessment instruments intended to measure first-year engineering students' QL. The Student Model refers to the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities that are desired targets in the assessment instrument. To obtain the evidence for the Student Model, materials from first-year engineering curricula (i.e., learning objectives, homework problems, and assessment questions) are being collected from a variety of engineering programs for analysis. Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) and an a-priori coding frame developed from a QL framework are being used to answer the research question, What QL skills and knowledge are expected of first-year engineering students? While materials are still being collected and coded, preliminary results indicate that first-year engineering courses focus on the cognitive aspect of QL with little attention to disposition and beliefs, the two other aspects of QL identified in the literature. In the full paper, we will share the results of the qualitative content analysis of the course materials, comprising instances of QL found in the first-year course materials and the specific aspects of QL students are expected to know (e.g., disposition, content, etc.).

Determining the expectations for QL in first-year courses is the first step in developing a QL instrument that is specific to engineering. Understanding what students are expected to learn in their first-year engineering classes will also help educators better prepare students for success in college during secondary education.

Keywords: quantitative literacy, QL, qualitative content analysis, QCA, first-year, student model, assessment