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Although efforts have been made to broaden participation in computing, ongoing reports and counts in the field continue to illustrate the need to improve engagement and retention. There remains a minoritization of Black or African American men and women, Hispanic or Latinx men and women, Indigenous men and women, White women, and Asian women. As such, it is vital to explore trends over time and find new potential avenues to attract students to computing. Developing a better understanding of students' trajectories, and potentially the variable ways they may enter the major before obtaining their degrees, can offer avenues for recruitment. We conducted a quantitative analysis of switching behaviors using the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD). The theoretical framework of intersectionality guided the inquiry as we examined patterns and disaggregated them by gender, race, and ethnicity. We sought to explore trends in switching behaviors for those entering computing, including potential variations in: 1) the major in which students earn their first undergraduate degree; and 2) different intersectional groups. We focused specifically on students from CIP6 11, Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services. Our analysis of MIDFIELD illustrated that many intersectional populations of students who transferred into computing came from another engineering field. However, several racial and ethnic groups of women primarily entered through non-STEM fields. Among these women, those who identified as Black and those who identified as Hispanic or Latinx most often switched from a Business major, at 31.5% and 29.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, women classified as International and those who identified as White most often transferred from the Liberal Arts/Humanities, at 41.7% and 32.7%, respectively. The findings of this work suggest that women who enter computing may do so through distinctive pathways. Going forward, this provides new opportunities for educators and administrators to consider what may appeal to different intersectional populations of students, particularly for women that identify as Black, Hispanic or Latinx, International, and/or White. This study offers information that could shape what topics may attract students to a computing field and how they could be incorporated into computing lessons or examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of student mindset has been often probed in the recent engineering education literature. In this paper, we revisit a multi-year study to provide updated on a particular facet of mindset in engineering education we find particularly revealing - the misunderstood link between creativity and other mindset factors such as creatvity. This entrepreneurial mindset instrument used to investigate mindset of engineering and computer science students was utilized at a private liberal arts university in the United States and first reported as a study on Dweck mindset among first through fourth year students. In this brief work in progress paper, we revisit this survey to determine the link between creativity and curiosity that has previously been uninvestigated, including variations of our original themes: (i) what diversity of curiosity and creativity is carried by first-year students into the university experience, (ii) how curiosity and creativity evolve during the undergraduate experience, and (iii) whether differences in curiosity and creativity can be identified by gender or discipline. While previously, the evidence suggested that mindset shifts somewhat towards fixed mindset as students progress towards their final year, the same contention may not exist for creativity or curiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optional survey instrument is used to investigate the mindset of engineering and computer-science students at a mid-sized, private university in the United States. The instrument was based on modification of prior survey instruments on mindset as well as student interpretation of talent and intelligence. With nearly 1/3 of the students responding, a significant data base was generated for student of mindset and student perceptions. In the present paper, a portion of the survey results are analyzed in an effort to explore: (i) what diversity of mindset is carried by first-year students into the university experience, (ii) how mindset evolves during the undergraduate experience, and (iii) whether differences in mindset can be identified by gender or discipline. Through multiple statistical analyses, the survey results indicate that the distribution of mindset is relatively diverse among the first-year students, but biased towards an open mindset (versus fixed mindset). There is also evidence that the mindset shifts somewhat towards fixed mindset as the students progress towards their final year. Differences in responses from students from different disciplines are noted, but no significant difference in mindset is observed by gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the recent deluge of attempts at forming a more coherent and aligned philosophy of engineering education, a demand for an application of traditional continental methods should be apparent. Even the definition of the field itself is available for scrutiny, and within that framework, a number of interesting paradigms can be discussed. This paper intends to apply approaches from Heidegger's works on metaphysics compared to modern engineering education philosophies. These approaches include interpretations of commonly used words, the intentionality of various constructs within the field, and to whom these constructs affect. The main core of this discussion on Heidegger revolves around the lesser-expanded constructs of false thinking and Bodenständigkeit or autochthony -- sometimes called groundedness. These two constructs can be readily applied to the enterprise of engineering education to better situate the engineer in the world and to discuss his place relative to his role in society, his job, his colleagues, and related institutions. While there are many tools to evaluate engineering thinking and even emergent ones to evaluate divergent and creative thought, tools to evaluate the lack of thinking or thoughtlessness are not pervasive. Heidegger's philosophy provides reflections to better understand false thinking, grounded thought, and potentially a construct for delimiting thought or thoughtlessness -- three constructs from which our modern technological literature could benefit. Lastly, of key importance to the future of the field of philosophy of engineering education is its self-expression, not to be confused with the often-used term agency. In one sense, engineering education can be expressed from the vantage point of engineers and educators and their respective communities, and the community efforts must be addressed to fully understand the definition of engineering education. It should be understood that the lens used to study both engineering and education in terms of a philosophy such as Heidegger's is fundamentally a lens of abstraction focused on the self, thus can be of key importance to our community. After discussing several components of Heidegger's philosophy, his constructs are tied to recent publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focusses on the seminal paper by Shannon on information theory and mutual information, an information gained from random variables . Topics include the literature review of students on switching their college majors, data analysis of first time in college students and computational analysis of mutual information.

The article reports on the grading, and course size of engineering students. Topics discussed include course size, students' grades, and introductory courses of engineering students. Class size on grades of engineering students, and evaluation of teaching is also discussed. Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) is used for grading disparity with respect to course sizing.

Living-learning communities have been shown to have a number of positive impacts on undergraduate students within engineering and computer-science programs. A residentiallybased living-learning community (LLC) has been established at Gonzaga University. This LLC, based on students applying to participate over their first two academic years, is relatively modest in scope with competitions, invited speakers, and study-halls being among the primary special activities. Initial studies on retention indicated that, despite this simplicity, this LLC appears to have a significant, positive impact on student retention. In the present study, questions are addressed exploring whether the increased retention can be associated solely with the impact of the LLC, or whether self-selection into the LLC may provide a second explanation of higher retention based on apparent differences between the LLC students versus those students who do not apply for the LLC. Further, a question of longer term (through the senior year) impact of the LLC is explored. Results indicate that students entering the LLC as first-semester freshmen appear to have a higher self-assessment in terms of attributes that might commonly be associated with the entrepreneurial mindset (consistent with the invitation to join this LLC), but are otherwise quite similar to the non-LLC students. Results at the end of the semester indicate that the LLC students remain unchanged in terms of their confidence of completing a degree in engineering or computer science, whereas the population not participating in the LLC showed an overall decline in this confidence. These results suggest some minor, but potentially critical, differences among the two student cohorts at the beginning of the semester that are amplified during the first semester. Thus, it appears that a combination of activities within the LLC combined with student traits leading to application to the LLC may jointly explain the higher retention of these students. In terms of longer-term impact of the LLC, students within the junior and senior cohorts who were originally enrolled in engineering or computer science were asked to reflect on major influences on their decision to remain within, or leave, engineering. Results showed statistically significant differences (p =0.05) between students who participated in the LLC versus students who participated in other dorms in, among others, the following areas: dorm life in the first two years and interaction with students. This result is interpreted as direct impact of the LLC experience and is consistent with prior studies. This work contributes to the existing literature as it indicates that higher retention from an LLC, even in a very simple LLC such the one at Gonzaga University, may derive from a combination of both differences in the attributes of the students entering the LLC and experiences within the LLC during the first semester. The impact of the LLC appears to be retained, via personal connections gained through student interactions within an engineering/computer-science focused dorm, through the remainder of the undergraduate years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, engineering content is increasingly appearing in the K-12 classroom. As pre-college engineering programs grow, first-year engineering students are arriving in university engineering programs with significant prior exposure to engineering content and practices. In this paper, we present the results of a survey of first-year engineering students on their participation in pre-college engineering programs and activities. Students enrolled in four sections of a first-year engineering program at a large public university were asked to complete a survey indicating the settings where they encountered engineering prior to college, named and described the various activities that they participated in and the approximate amount of time they spent doing each activity. Participants also provided demographic information. Results indicate that 89 percent of domestic students enrolling in first-year engineering classes at the university have experiences they describe as engineering prior to college. High school classes are the most common way that students are exposed to engineering content by a significant margin, followed by extra-curricular activities, summer camps or programs, and middle school classes. While the majority of respondents reported participating in one or two different activities, some reported participating in as many as nine different pre-college engineering programs or activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on elementary students' conceptions and understanding of the engineering design process. The study considered the idea of design learning progressions among the participants. It examined the role of instruction and curriculum as an integral part of considering learning progressions and students' development of knowledge and reasoning on design across multiple grades.