2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work in progress paper briefly describes three approaches to being used to scaffold engineering students’ tolerance for ambiguity in an undergraduate engineering statistics course. Tolerance for Ambiguity (TA) is the ability to search for, savor, and excel in ambiguous tasks. This mindset and skill is necessary for today’s engineering graduates who must be able to address problems that are complex, fraught with uncertainty, and given to conflicting interpretations because of its stakeholders. Existing scholarship states that students with a higher tolerance for ambiguity will be better suited to proactively engage in, enjoy, and excel in finding solutions to the contemporary problems faced by 21st-century engineers. On the contrary, students with a lower tolerance for ambiguity tend to be unmotivated in the modern engineering work environment and struggle to perform well. Given this reality, pedagogical innovations shown to increase students’ tolerance for ambiguity have the potential to better prepare better engineering solutions and excel in their careers. However, there are few examples in the engineering education literature of how to foster this in undergraduate engineering education. The context of this study is an undergraduate engineering statistics course offered by the Industrial Engineering department at a large university located in the southeast. Students have been given a large hypothetical data set that mimics real data the undergraduate student experience (e.g., GPAs, course completion rates), and asked to use the engineering design process to identify and solve a data-rich problem using statistical techniques they have learned in the course. This paper briefly describes three intentional course design decisions that were included in the development of a pedagogical intervention designed to increase their tolerance for ambiguity. Apart from the design project itself, the other two approaches include concept maps and short videos from practicing engineering professionals describing the role and value of a tolerance for ambiguity in their work. The findings of this study will advance our understanding of useful pedagogical strategies for fostering the development of this 21st century skill.