Changing the Public’s View of Engineering
In a recent report issued by the National Academy of Engineering, messages for improving public understanding of engineering were developed and tested to encourage more young people to seek an engineering career. Don Giddens, Dean of Engineering at Tech, was the chair of the committee that wrote the report titled, Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering.
According to Giddens, “Improving public understanding of engineering will enable people to make more informed decisions about technology, encourage students to consider engineering careers, and ultimately sustain the U.S. capacity for technological innovation.”
The NAE project represents a unique effort to use market research techniques to improve the public image of the engineering profession. The project was in response to concerns about the adequacy of the U.S. technical workforce and the need to attract a more diverse mix of students to engineering, as well as the fact that many people have a limited understanding of what engineers do and the contributions they make. “We hope that through a change in the messages we deliver that we can encourage young people to consider a career in engineering,” said Giddens. “We want to emphasize how an engineering career provides an opportunity to change the world rather than over-emphasize the obvious need for strengths in math and science.”
The four messages that tested best in a survey of over 3600 young people and adults in the NAE project were:
- Engineers make a world of difference
- Engineers are creative problem-solvers
- Engineers help shape the future
- Engineering is essential to our health, happiness, and safety.
These messages can be used to help raise the level of technological literacy in the general population, as well as “prime” the engineering-education pipeline. “No profession allows for the spirit of innovation like engineering,” said Giddens, quoting from a repositioning statement that was developed in the project. “Few professions turn so many ideas into realities and few have such a direct impact on people’s everyday lives. We need to reach the future generations of ‘engineers’ to help us meet the needs of the 21st century.”
Each year, the engineering community spends hundreds of millions of dollars to increase public understanding of engineering. A previous NAE report found that these outreach efforts were poorly coordinated and not evaluated for effectiveness. The NAE project represented the first time qualitative and quantitative research was used to formulate a coordinated and strategic approach to improve the public’s understanding of engineering. The project tested the appeal, believability, and relevance of a handful of different messages, as well as targeted input from women and underrepresented minorities in engineering schools and careers.
The NAE report urged members of the engineering community to promote how engineers can make a difference in the world rather than emphasizing the required skills and personal benefits. “Math and science skills will continue to be necessary for engineers, but these skills are also important for many careers and fields,” said Giddens. “We need to appeal to the higher aspirations of young people while letting them know that math and science are two of a variety of skills necessary for successful engineers.” The research used by the NAE report found that in the past the excessive emphasis on math and science produced a negative effect by alienating many young people rather than attracting them to engineering.
In addition to exploring new messages to promote engineering, the NAE report also found differences in attitudes or understanding about the field. Most marked was the fact that the majority of students have a very limited idea of what engineers actually do. In addition to this, the report also discovered:
- Students felt they were not smart enough or do not enjoy math or science enough to become engineers.
- Students thought that engineering was sedentary, and most work was done on computers with little contact with other people.
“Our ultimate goal is to share with the public that engineering is more than a math- and science-dependent process for solving problems,” said Giddens. “Engineering is that, but so much more. It is creative, concerned with human welfare, and an emotionally satisfying career. We hope that our new approach to the public face of engineering will more effectively convey the fact that engineering does make a world of difference.”
Images courtesy National Academy of Engineering of the National Academies
>> Engineers make a world of difference.