2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Clarifying engineering epistemologies is a major aim for engineering education research. Much of the work to date has focused on philosophical considerations and determining students’ epistemological development and beliefs; however, there is still room for clarification about what defines engineering thinking and knowledge and what distinguishes engineering epistemologies from related fields such as natural science and mathematics. This paper analyzes sections from several introductory electrical engineering textbooks spanning roughly 80 years of publication to determine what epistemological beliefs are present. Explicit epistemic statements are compared for consistency to the epistemology implied by text content. Attention is also given to how the content of these textbooks can be classified according to Whitehead’s rhythm of education. It is found that the earliest texts emphasize theory, while modern texts all emphasize analysis. Verbal explanations are minimized over time in favor of worked examples and practice problems. Two texts analyzed emphasize applications and design, but these texts are not typically used as introductory texts in electrical engineering despite covering much of the same content as traditional engineering texts. Recent texts include more differentiation in material in terms of Whitehead’s rhythm of education; however, material is still overwhelmingly confined to the precision stage.