The role of machine shop sessions in building confidence amongst first year engineering students in Ghana

Beem, Heather R.

doi:10.1109/educon46332.2021.9454012

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…may be less important than the intangibles they are experiencing, such as the sense of the opportunity they have ahead and the anticipation they feel for getting to apply themselves. Note that this ranking is different than that measured in the 2018 cohort [9] where availability of tools came out on top, suggesting some variability between year groups.…”

Section: Discussion/conclusioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

“…Table 2 depicts data collected on the pre-survey regarding students' existing level of designbuild experience and exposure to the university workshop facility. As presented previously [10], less than half of the 2019 cohort had any experience designing and building. Few of the items mentioned would have required the use of standard workshop tools to create.…”

Section: Existing Level Of Design-build Experiencementioning

confidence: 92%

“…The 2021 cohort were based on campus but attended some classes in person and some online, due to the university's gradual phasing in of in-person classes. The 2019 data was collected and analyzed in the previous study [10]. The 2020 and 2021 data are analyzed here and compared to that of 2019.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies with the first-year engineering students at Ashesi University revealed that mastery experiences significantly increased students' self-efficacy. These were conducted via a skillsbuilding session in the machine shop [9] and via a culturally responsive Project-Based Learning (PjBL) final course project in which students designed and built quadcopter drones [10]. It is interesting to note in those studies that despite minimal prior design-build experiences, students began the course with a relatively high level of confidence to fabricate.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the role of the physical environment in building self-efficacy in first-year African engineering students

Beem

2022 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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in Ghana, where she leads the Resourceful Engineering Lab. Her research explores the mechanisms and manifestations of resourceful design, particularly along the lines of indigenous innovation, experiential education, and bio-inspired fluid dynamics. Dr. Beem completed her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT/WHOI, and moved shortly thereafter to Ghana, where she also founded and leads Practical Education Network (PEN), a STEM education nonprofit building the capacity of African STEM teachers to employ practical pedagogies.

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Section: Discussion/conclusioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

Section: Existing Level Of Design-build Experiencementioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Exploring the role of the physical environment in building self-efficacy in first-year African engineering students

Beem

2022 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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“…Only a few of the students at the private-school cited having worked with some electronics before. And yet, similar to the dynamic captured at Ashesi, a private university in Ghana (Beem, 2021a), almost all survey respondents reported high values (between 8-10) for their confidence to design and build their own product prior to any training.…”

Section: ) Surveys (Interest Creativity Confidence) Pre-survey Resultsmentioning

confidence: 55%

Exploring the Role of Engineering Skills-Building Activities Amongst Youth in Rural Karnataka

R. Beem,

Asante-Asare,

Obeng

2024

Research in Engineering Education Symposium

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ContextEngineering skills-building activities, such as those found within the Creative Capacity Building (CCB) approach, have been used as a human capital-building approach to enabling developmental progress amongst rural communities. Purpose or GoalThe Siddi (Afro-Indian) community can tend to view themselves as outsiders within broader Indian society. This study began delving into two research questions: 1) What constructs may be apt for describing Siddi youths' experience? 2) To what extent do self-perceptions change as Siddi youth engage in an engineering skills-building session? MethodsThis mixed-method exploratory study began with stakeholder interviews in a village and nearby town within Karnataka State. Coding was done to ascertain which constructs resonated well. A three-day CCB-inspired training was then deployed for three different groups of youth -a private-school in the town, a public-school in the town and hostel students in the village. Pre-post changes in Likert scale responses on a survey were analyzed using t-tests and Hedge's g tests to ascertain how interest in STEM, creativity and confidence levels were affected. OutcomesInterest emerged as a common first step in the Siddi youths' narrative. As a result of the training, interest in engineering increased with statistical significance and large effect size for all disaggregations. The public-school students performed objectively better than the private-school students during the training, however they reported lesser gains in self-perception. ConclusionEngineering skills-building can have a significant impact on rural youth, such as those from the Siddi community. Stereotype threat may however limit its manifestation in their self-perceptions.

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A preliminary exploration of the relevance of self-efficacy, self-determination, and agency in describing the first-year African engineering students’ experience

Beem,

Ampomah,

Takyi

et al.

2023 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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in Ghana, where she leads the Ashesi Resourceful Engineering Lab. Her research explores the mechanisms and manifestations of resourceful design, particularly in indigenous innovation, experiential education, and bio-inspired fluid dynamics. Dr. Beem completed her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT/WHOI, and moved thereafter to Ghana, where she founded and leads Practical Education Network (PEN), a STEM education nonprofit building the capacity of African STEM teachers to employ practical pedagogies.

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The role of machine shop sessions in building confidence amongst first year engineering students in Ghana

Cited by 3 publications

References 12 publications

Exploring the role of the physical environment in building self-efficacy in first-year African engineering students

Exploring the role of the physical environment in building self-efficacy in first-year African engineering students

Exploring the Role of Engineering Skills-Building Activities Amongst Youth in Rural Karnataka

A preliminary exploration of the relevance of self-efficacy, self-determination, and agency in describing the first-year African engineering students’ experience

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