Engineering Profession: Understanding Freshman Perspective

More we know about our learners the better are we in a position to mentor them. This is more so in engineering education as this is a professional course focusing on skills also. Prior knowledge of the learner about engineering profession and motivation level of the learner are two important factors among several others that influence learner's perception of engineering as a profession. There are several approaches used by Engineering Education practitioners to know the prior knowledge of the learner about the engineering profession. This paper discusses about one such technique - Draw an Engineer at Work Test (DAEWT) technique used by the authors to understand the prior knowledge of the learner regarding Engineering profession. Freshman Engineering students are asked to draw the sketch of an Engineer at work. Required data regarding the background of the learner is also collected. These pictures drawn by are studied with respect to their family background and their previous education setting. To know the motivation of the students to opt for engineering program, students were asked to list jobs related to specific engineering disciplines as job after graduation is considered most important motivation. This awareness in the learner is analyzed with respect to prior education setting of parents to evaluate its impact on their motivation. This paper discusses the details of the methods employed and the analysis of the results.