Elementary Students' Perceived Images of Engineers

Abstract

The number of students choosing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related careers are declining. Thus it became a worldwide challenge in the 21 st century. As public images of the engineers are unfavorable and inaccurate, misconceptions and stereotypes about engineers are prevailing. The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school students' perceived mental and pictorial images of engineers and the nature of engineering work. This study involved 512 fifth and sixth grade students (Boys: 287 and Girls: 225) from four elementary schools at one of metropolitans in South Korea. The Draw An Engineer-Korean version (DAE-K) was developed based on Draw an Engineer (DAE) and Draw a Scientist (DAS), and Song and Kim (1999)'s instruments. A pilot-tested was conducted with 33 elementary students prior to the main study. The students were asked to answer how they think the engineers would be, to draw an engineer at work, and to write the engineer's personal information and the job description. Engineers were perceived as a person fixing, building, manufacturing, working outdoors in labors' clothes such as a robe. Engineers were shown with building tools, robots, airplanes, machines, conveyor belt, etc. Moreover, compared to the scientists, engineers were perceived as less intelligent, less imaginative, and less accurate. The results of this study revealed that elementary school students had a lack of accurate images of engineers. Students' current perceived images of engineers could help educators find the baselines for the future engineering education in elementary schools. In addition, the findings of this study could also contribute to the development of engineering education in terms of gender issues, STEM career choice, and even cultural diversity.

Ortaokul 5. ve 7. Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Mühendisler ve Bilim İnsanlarına Yönelik Algılarının Karşılaştırmalı Olarak İncelenmesi

“…There are many research on scientist perceptions in the literature. Dux, 2007;Park and Lee, 2014). With these findings, it have been seen the seventh grade students draw of less well known engineering fields such as agriculture, genetics, machinery, environment, unlike the fifth grade students.…”

“…The data related to the engineer perception showed that most students imagined of a "civil engineer" dealing with house / building construction furthermore "building worker" that the most common misconception. In many researches, it is stated that students generally perceive the engineers as "civil engineer" (Bilen, Irkıcatal and Ergin, 2014;Capobianco, Diefes-Dux, Mena and Weller, 2011;Cunningham, Lachapelle and Lindgren-Streicher, 2005;English, Hudson and Dawes, 2011;Fralick et al, 2009;Gulhan and Sahin, 2016;Karatas, Micklos and Bodner, 2011;Knight and Cunningham, 2004;Oware, Capobianco Dux, 2007;Park and Lee, 2014). With these findings, it have been seen the seventh grade students draw of less well known engineering fields such as agriculture, genetics, machinery, environment, unlike the fifth grade students.…”

“…Çocukların bilim insanı olma konusundaki tutumları, bilime karşı ilgileri, onların bilim insanı algılarından etkilenmektedir (Buldu, 2006;Camcı Erdoğan, 2013;Güler ve Akman, 2006;Kaya ve diğerleri, 2008;Kılıç, 2010;Losh, Wilke ve Pop, 2008;Nuhoğlu ve Afacan, 2011;Yontar Toğrol, 2013 (Huang, Shih, Chen ve Liu, 2015;Losh ve diğerleri, 2008). Bilim insanı algıları öğrencilerin yaşlarına göre değişebilir (Kaya ve diğerleri, 2008;Özel, 2012 Lee, 2014;Reeping ve Reid, 2014;Spencer, 2011). Mühendislerin tren operatörü (Knight ve Cunningham, 2004), işçi (Fralick ve diğerleri, 2009;Park ve Lee, 2014), oto tamircisi (Ganesh ve diğerleri, 2009;Knight ve Cunningham, 2004) (Creswell, 2014).…”

“…In addition scientists are perceived as "male". There are researches in the literature indicating that engineers (Capobianco et al, 2011;Fralick et al, 2009;Ganesh, 2011;Koyunlu Unlu and Dokme, 2016;Park and Lee, 2014) and scientists (Barman et al, 1997;Bilen et al, 2014;Camcı Erdogan, 2013;Chambers, 1983;Fort and Varney, 1989;Fralick et al, 2009;Gonsoulin, 2001;Huang, Shih, Chen and Liu, 2015;Kara and Akarsu, 2013;Kaya et al, 2008;Kucuk and Bag, 2012;Losh, Wilke and Pop, 2008;McCann and Marek, 2016;Nuhoglu and Afacan, 2011;Ocal, 2007;Ozel, 2012;Ozel and Dogan, 2013;Ozgelen, 2012;Ozsoy andAhi, 2014, Turgut et al, 2017;Turkmen, 2008;Yontar Togrol, 2000;Yontar Togrol, 2013) are perceived as "male". Especially, as the class level of the girl students increases, female engineer and female scientist perception has decreased.…”

Public Perception of Engineering Technology: A Literature Review

“…For example, most perception-related research in engineering technology has focused on graduates and professionals within the field, whereas many of the studies addressing the perception of engineering have instead studied younger students (often with a goal of ascertaining why more people are not choosing engineering as a career). The age range of study participants vary from early primary school students [15] [16] to 5 th and 6 th graders [17] [18] to later secondary school students [19] [20] to high school students and beyond [21]; many of them make heavy use of the "draw an engineer" tool, adapted from and often used in tandem with the version intended for gauging the perception of scientists [22] [23] [24]. Those studies that do not use this tool often design their own surveys to find the same information [25], or look towards the representation of scientists and engineers in existing media rather than surveying subjects.…”