• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.3-10
• /
• 2023

The underrepresentation of women in engineering has received considerable attention. A series of policies and practices have been developed to promote gender-balanced participation in engineering. This study focuses on gender disparities in reasons for the choice of engineering majors and regret of that choice. The regression results show that compared to their male counterparts, women are found to select an engineering major primarily based on their high school GPA or CSAT scores rather than their aptitudes and interests. Accordingly, women regret their major choice more than men due to mismatched expectations and abilities or unsatisfactory postgraduate labor market outcomes. The findings provide policy insights to improve gender equity in engineering by further enhancing career education in secondary schools.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.26-36
• /
• 2020

This study aims to investigate the effect of college choice factors on withdrawal intention of first-year undergraduates in STEM majors. The data for this study were collected from a national sample of 4-year institutions that participated in Collegiate Longitudinal Study funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea during 2013-2014. The data included 1,484 students in STEM majors from 30 institutions, and this study used bivariate and multivariate analytic methods to answer the research questions. This study found that while the internal dimensions of college choice showed a negative effect on the intention to dropout, external dimensions of college choice such as college environment, financial accessibility, admission possibility had a positive effect on the intention. The findings indicate that it is necessary to pay attention to college choice for enrollment management to prevent first-year undergraduates in STEM majors from dropping out.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.119-128
• /
• 2015

The role and importance of entrepreneurship is fast becoming recognized with the topic of creative economy in Korea. Especially, young generations having difficulties of finding a job choose to be an entrepreneur as a part of their career choice due to the changes in social awareness about entrepreneurship and the increase of entrepreneurship education opportunity. It is needed to approach with the analysis of young people's career choice reasons in order to provide effective entrepreneurship education to those who has the choice of career ahead. Each student has different desire to entrepreneurship lecture and education with the basis of their own motivation and goal of career choice reasons. The objective of this study is to examine career choice reasons with 1,651 science and engineering field students in universities to determine the sustainable needs of entrepreneurship education. As a result of the analysis, there is significant relationship between the satisfaction of entrepreneurship education and the intrinsic factors such as self-realization, innovativeness, role-model and independence. In addition, the satisfaction of entrepreneurship education is significantly related to the sustainable desire of entrepreneurship education. In other words, it is needed to enhance intrinsic value of the students' career choice reasons for sustainable entrepreneurship education due to successful start-ups requiring to have information and understanding process of business which comes from continuous entrepreneurship education.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.30-39
• /
• 2021

The present study aims to demonstrate that it is possible to objectively evaluate the competency (referred to as graduate attributes or program outcomes) of graduates of engineering education programs. To strengthen the link between engineering education accreditation and the qualification/certification system of engineering professionals, referred to as K-Engineering Professional (K-EP), individually assuring the quality of accredited graduates using multiple-choice test as main assessment tool is proposed. Test questions related to the basic vocational skills of NCS are developed for seven of the 10 program outcomes of the ABEEK KEC2015. The three program outcomes, PO1, PO3, and PO5, which need to fully accommodate the characteristics of each disciplinary field, are excluded. A pilot test involving graduates of eight accredited programs is conducted. Applying on Rasch model based on Item Response Theory (IRT), the item difficulty, fit and discrimination of multiple choice test are demonstrated. The pilot study strongly suggests that individual competency evaluation is possible at a certain level for seven program outcomes tested. For PO1, PO3, and PO5, however, questions that address the characteristics of each disciplinary field need to be devised. If a suitable pool of questions is built, it can be used as a program outcomes assessment tool by the accredited programs.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.51-58
• /
• 2015

This research was conducted to assess the effects of an engineering education accreditation program devised by the University of Seoul on higher education outcomes by comparing and analyzing the evaluation results of engineering accredited students (31) and those who are not accredited (47) with the OECD AHELO (Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes) in 2013. The AHELO assessment tool consisted of 25 multiple-choice questions which evaluated generic skill-learning outcomes, also using contextual surveys to establish the students' backgrounds. The results were evaluated statistically. In the results from the multiple-choice exam for generic skill learning outcomes, accredited students scored 1.35 points higher than non-accredited students. Secondly, according to the contextual survey related to students' university education experience, such as lectures, seminars, group projects, and online tutoring, it was found that accredited students were provided more activities in seminars and group projects. Moreover, for class activities, more of these were provided to accredited students, especially in the areas of assortment-structuralization and teamwork-based activities. Thirdly, according to the contextual survey results related to participation in class, specifically regarding asking questions and participating in discussions, interacting with the professor, and opportunities for study time, there were no recognizable differences between accredited and non-accredited students, However, while accredited students at least had opportunities to gain experience in most areas, there were some areas for which education resources were not provided to non-accredited students. Therefore, for the University of Seoul, our results imply that accredited students may show better performance in the areas of academic accomplishment and in their educational environment as compared to non-accredited students. These results demonstrate that the engineering education accreditation program positively contributes to employment competitiveness while also improving the necessary global standards of higher education outcomes.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.80-86
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence the choice of a major in a sample of 655 science students enrolled in 14 high schools. It was found that more than 80 percents of students had already chosen their desired majors by the second year of high school. Half intended to apply for medical colleges. The preference of medical colleges was more pronounced in high-ranking students. It was found that students who scored highly on career decision level assessments were more likely to major in science. The most important determinant for students in choosing majors was subject interests. Career concerns and students' grades also influenced the choice of majors. In this study, it is concluded that the career decision level of students and subject interests influenced their choice of major. These findings suggest the career development programs and efforts to expose students to various career paths will increase the ability to make informed educational decisions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.1350-1364
• /
• 2023

2D/1D coupling method is an important neutron transport calculation method due to its high accuracy and relatively low computation cost. However, 2D/1D coupling method may diverge especially in small axial mesh size. To analyze the convergence behavior of 2D/1D coupling method, a Fourier analysis for k-eigenvalue neutron transport problems is implemented. The analysis results present the divergence problem of 2D/1D coupling method in small axial mesh size. Several common attempts are made to solve the divergence problem, which are to increase the number of inner iterations of the 2D or 1D calculation, and two times 1D calculations per outer iteration. However, these attempts only could improve the convergence rate but cannot deal with the divergence problem of 2D/1D coupling method thoroughly. Moreover, the choice of axial solvers, such as DGFEM SN and traditional SN, and its effect on the convergence behavior are also discussed. The results show that the choice of axial solver is a key point for the convergence of 2D/1D method. The DGFEM SN based 2D/1D method could converge within a wide range of optical thickness region, which is superior to that of traditional SN method.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.140-150
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study was to compare and analysis researches related the promising career and job outlook and to provide the direction for job choice to engineering students. Literature review and expert council were used to achieve the objectives of study. The result of this study was analyzed that these jobs were promising, that is, environmental scientist and specialist, earth scientist and hydrologist(education and research related career), architecture and architectural engineer, civil engineer, landscape technician, land surveyor map production expert photo surveyor surveying technician(construction related career), material engineer (mechanics and material related career), mine and geology engineer(chemistry, fiber and environment related career), computer system design and analyst, system software engineer, application software engineer, web specialist, and computer support specialist (electrical and telecommunication related career) and food engineer(food related career). In addition, health silver specialist, bio biomedical engineer, renewable energy specialist etc. were promising by considering social and economic trend for demographic change like aging and green growth.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.61-67
• /
• 2010

The current trends in engineering education have been examined in order to address the situation of educating engineering workforce. It was found that the decline in the supply of manpower in engineering education had not been a serious problem since 2003. However, a large number of students who graduated engineering colleges intended to enter medical schools. Engineering colleges may consider developing high school exposure programs making students to explore engineering. Also policies are required for engineering program to be competitive for attracting and retaining strong workforce into an engineering career.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.68-75
• /
• 2020

In order to cultivate the talents acquired in the fourth industrial revolution, developed countries' government are actively engaged in the campaigns encouraging K-12 students to participate in the maker movement. Maker education is regarded as one possible solution based on high tech in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and it is spreading widely along with STEM education. In South Korea, STEAM education was actively conducted nationwide, and since 2017, STEAM and maker education have been linked showing mutual development. However, compared to STEAM education linked to the curriculum, comparison and activity-based research on maker education for teenagers is still insufficient. Therefore, this study aimed to suggest implications for STEAM education and maker education by analyzing the motivation of Korean youth to participate in maker activities. The subjects of this study are high school students who participated in maker education programs in student community for the first time in Korea. In this study, students were classified into engineering-related career group and non-engineering-related career groups based on their career intentions, and the motivation and understanding of participation in maker activities were compared. As a result of the study, male students participated more in maker education community activities than female students, and the engineering-related career group had a higher intention to participate in games, outdoor activities, IT equipment, digital production, and electrical/electronic production activities than the non-engineering-related career group. In addition, in the fields of handicraft/art, home baking, installing, and horticultural agriculture, there was no difference in the intention of participate in the engineering-related career group and the non-engineering-related career group. It was found that the engineering-related career group believed that there was a strong relationship between the maker education community activity, career exploration and future career choice, while the non-engineering-related career group believed that the relationship is less strong. It was also found that the engineering-related career group was participating more actively in the maker activity than the other group.