Thinking about engineers:a glimpse of what we know about

students leaving engineering and what we might do about it

Sheri D. SheppardAssociate Professor, Mechanical

EngineeringStanford University

February 4, 2004

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

• Total U.S. population: 267,636,000

• Adult U.S. population with an engineering degree: 1.8%*

* based on 190,640,000 people over 20, includes computer science and engineering technologies

Source: Text table 1, pg. 2, NSF Report: Women, Minorities, and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2000.

Native Population Engr. WorkforceFemales 50.5%Asians 3.6%

Blacks 11.3%Hispanics 10.1%Am. Indians 0.7%

Females 9.0%Asians 10.9%

Blacks 2.6%Hispanics 3.5%

Am. Indians 0.28%

Graduates in 2000

Source: Table 26, NSF Report: Science and Engineering Degrees: 1966-2000.

Bachelor’s degrees to women1990 1998

All fields 53.3% 56.2%

Total S&E 42.5% 48.7%

Mathematics 46.4% 46.8%

Agri. &Biological Sciences

48.2% 52.7%

Physical Sciences 32.2% 39.2%

Computer Sciences

30.2% 26.9%

Engineering 15.4% (9,973 women /64,705)

18.6% (11,339 women /60,914)

Source: Tabulations by National Science Foundation, Appendix table 3-4, Women, Minorities, and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2002.

Study #1: Talking About Leaving*

E. Seymour & N. Hewitt • Study of factors contributing to high

attrition rates among science, mathematics & engineering

• Ethnographic study of 335 students at seven four-year institutions.

• Interviews and focus groups

• Three year period: 1990-1993 • E. Seymour, N. Hewitt, Talking about Learning: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences, Westview Press, 1997.

Engineering Majors: rank of issues contributing to switching decision

1. Lack of/loss of interest in S.M.E (non-switcher rank: 5)2. Curriculum overloaded, fast pace (3)3. Poor teaching by S.M.E. faculty (1)4. Non-S.M.E. major offers better education (8)5. Feel S.M.E. career options/rewards are not worth effort

to get degree (12)6. Shift to more appealing non-S.M.E. career option (14)

7. Inadequate advising or help with academic problems (2)8. Discouraged/lost confidence due to low grades (14)

Conclusions from S&H• switchers and non-switchers are not two different kinds of people”• “we did not find them to differ by attributes of measured ability or moral character, to

any degree that was sufficient to explain why one group left, and the other group stayed. Rather, we found an array of abilities, motivations, and study-related behaviors across the entire group.”

• “what distinguished the survivors from those who left was their development of particular attitudes or coping strategies. Serendipity also played a part of persistence, often in the form in intervention by faculty at a crisis point in the student’s academic or personal life.”

Study #2a: Unlocking the Clubhouse

J. Margolis & A. Fisher • Book reports on multiyear project to understand

and improve the situation of women in computer science, primarily at the college level

• Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science • Interview-based study of 100 students (1995-1999)• Three year period: 1990-1993

• J. Margois and A. Fisher, “Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing,” MIT Press 2003.

The Decision to leave…pg. 90

“In our study, we had the privilege and pleasure of talking with women students who overflowed with interest in computing as they began their college careers….Our initial conversations with these women, who were just beginning their studies, were filled with exclamation about learning computer science. By the second or third semester, it seemed like we were talking with different people. No longer buzzing, too many of these women students were now questioning whether they were still interested…women in the computer science program have transferred out at more than twice the rate of male students over the last few years.”

Study #2b: Unlocking the Clubhouse--

Women in Computing• Chapter 8: Changing the University• Practices revised: the experience gap, admissions,

more attention to good teaching, contextualizing computer science, culture

• Results to date:– Enrollment trends (7% in 1995 to 42% in 2000)– 2-year retention of women: (40% in 1995 to 85% in

2000; male number consistently around 90%)

Think about affecting change in the classroom climate: Interactive Teaching Methods

• Class average post-test Force Concept Inventory scores improved more with interactive teaching methods (curve (b)) than with traditional lecture-based instruction (curve (a)) for all students [Hake, 1998].

• more details: K. Smith, S. Sheppard, D. Johnson, R. Johnson, "Pedagogies of Engagement: Classroom-Based Practices," Journal of engineering Education-Special Edition, January 2005, (in press).

• also see: Eric Mazur (Harvard), Peer Instruction A user’s manual, Prentice Hall, 1997.

% PRETEST SCORE

% G

AIN

(a)

(b)

Why this matters…

• “The key point is that the United States is facing a crisis of global economic competitiveness. It is essential that we draw on all the human capital in this country.”

Denice D. Dentonhttp://currents.ucsc.edu/04-05/01-31/opinion-denton.asp

Why…

Volvo Reveals Car Designed by Women

By JOHN PORRETTO, AP Auto Writer

GENEVA - More than a year ago, Volvo Car Corp. gave women employees a special project: design the car they would like to drive.

The result is a roomy, 215-horsepower coupe that makes a statement about what women want. Simply put, they want more.

The workers demanded everything in a car that men want in terms of performance and styling, "plus a lot more that male car buyers have never thought to ask for," said Hans-Olov Olsson, Volvo's president and chief executive…

Feb. 2004

EXTRA SLIDES

Female Engineering Majors: rank of issues contributing to switching

decision1. Non-S.M.E. major offers better education (male switcher rank: 5)2. Lack of/loss of interest in S.M.E (1)3. Rejection of S.M.E. careers/associated lifestyles (10)4. Poor teaching by S.M.E faculty(3)5. Inadequate advising or help with academic problems (10)6. Curriculum overloaded, fast pace overwhelming (2)7. Feel S.M.E. career options/rewards are not worth effort (4)7. Shift to more appealing non-S.M.E. career option(6)9. Discouraged/lost confidence due to poor grades(6)

Engineering Graduates:Numbers Over Time

  B.S. M.S. Ph.D.  women percent women percent women percent

1970 337 0.8% 169 1.1% 16 0.5%

1980 5,952 10.1% 1,123 7.0% 90 3.6%

1990 9,973 15.4% 3,269 13.6% 415 8.5%

2000 12,216 20.5% 5,340 20.7% 839 15.7%

Source: Table 26, NSF Report: Science and Engineering Degrees: 1966-2000.

Engineering & CS Graduates:Numbers at Stanford and

Nationally

  B.S. M.S. Ph.D.  women percent women percent women percent

U.S.A. (1999-2000)

38,000 22.3% 16,700 24.2% 978 15.8%

Stanford (2002-2003)

94 26.8% 231 22.9% 36 17.0%

Sources: Tables A-1a and A-1b, NSF Report: Characteristics of Recent Science and Engineering Graduates: 2001. Tables 1 and 2, NSF Report: Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2002. Stanford Engineering website: http://soe.stanford.edu/alumni/plugged.html.

DemographicsEngineering Ph.D. Recipients (2002)

General U.S. Population (1999)

Male 82.3% 48.9%

Female 17.5% 51.1%

United States Citizen 37.3% 93.5%

Foreign 57.4% 6.5%

American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.4% 0.7%

Asian 13.5% 3.7%

Black 4.2% 12.1%

Hispanic 4.7% 11.5%

White 76.0% 71.9%

Other 1.2% 0.1%

Sources: Survey of Earned Doctorates, National Opinion Research Center, as cited in The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 12, 2003, pg. A10.Text Table 1, NSF Report: Women, Minorities, and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2002. Table 1.1, U.S. Census Bureau: PPL-135. Note that Ph.D. recipient ethnicity includes only U.S. Citizens.