Measuring engineering epistemic beliefs in undergraduate engineering students

Abstract

This study utilized a quantitative survey and open-ended items to understand engineering students' epistemic beliefs and gather content and face validity evidence. The survey included 22 items from the Engineering-Related Beliefs Questionnaire. Fifty undergraduate bioengineering students completed the survey. In addition to responding to the items on an anchored scale, the students were asked to provide short written explanations of their responses in a textbox below each item. Students' open-ended responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to gather content validity evidence and gain a general understanding of students' engineering epistemic beliefs. This analysis revealed inconsistencies with how students interpret the items and ambiguous terms used in the items. Based on the results of this analysis suggestions are made to improve the items on the survey for future use.