2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Over the past decade, there has been significant effort to increase the number of secondary students in engineering educational programs, their academic success, and postsecondary graduation rates. However, there is still uncertainty about how engineering programs translate into future educational outcomes as well as how these programs impact intellectual development. A focus on engineering design thinking methodology is paramount to facilitate engineering challenges faced in the 21st century. Engineering education struggles with pedagogies that translate for students into design starting points that focus on the ability to understand the needs of others using empathy and weighing the ethical implications and impacts of the technology and solutions they will create or engineer. To help educators understand pedagogical approaches and methodologies that result in academic attainment and retention outcomes, it would be beneficial to obtain direct feedback on learning impacts and useful knowledge from students as they move through their engineering education.
The challenges facing engineering including solving existing technological human made global crises, simultaneously stabilizing existing and creating new infrastructure, and accessing technological impacts on quality-of-life issues seek to increase the diversity of human and environmental voices in design. Increasing these perspectives can help students understand the impacts of proposed new technologies and reduce unforeseen consequences. The problems facing engineering design educators is how to bring broad knowledge content, flexible design practices, and these real-world problems and dynamics into the classroom. While experiential learning practices and human-centered design approaches are beneficial, more remains to be accomplished.
This paper presents a study investigating the effectiveness of an innovative Holistic Engineering pedagogy for secondary and postsecondary engineering students that includes a novel Holistic Design Thinking methodology. The approach emphasizes a holistic and broad and integrated transdisciplinary philosophy to engineering education, beginning with a foundation of knowledge on love, empathy, and ethics, and with a focus on engaging students’ emotions in the learning process to develop interpersonal and technical skills.
The paper reports eight years of qualitative results in teaching this pedagogy and using the methodology with secondary and postsecondary engineering students. Survey and direct feedback were obtained from secondary students as they move through their college engineering programs. Analyzing the qualitative feedback data from secondary engineering students can provide insights into the future states and experiences. Coupling this with retention rate data can help ground the qualitative data. It would also be useful to gather information on students’ experiences while in the postsecondary programs to understand how the secondary experience and knowledge modulated their ability to adapt, cultivate purpose, understand engineering concepts, and academic goals.
The research offers insights on the effectiveness of these holistic and transdisciplinary pedagogies in promoting students’ comprehension of engineering principals and interpersonal skills. It presents qualitative data from interviews and surveys, along with retention rate data. Overall, the goal is to provide awareness into this pedagogical approach to engineering education and contribute to ongoing discussions on approaches that promote holistic, transdisciplinary learning through emotional engagement of students.
This study provides valuable insights into the skills and knowledge that are critical for success in college engineering programs, particularly the first five semesters. The results suggest that rigorous homework practices, critical reading, time management, and engagement in the HDT methodology are important skills for high school students to develop. The study also highlights the benefits of transdisciplinary knowledge in such areas as team dynamics/teamwork; reflective and analytical writing; empathy; ethics; communication; and visual and critical thinking.