A theoretical argument is presented to suggest that engineering curriculum be
designed to develop social capital. Additionally, the value of social capital in the
retention of students in the College of Engineering, and the development, role, and value
of social capital in an electrical engineering laboratory is evaluated. Data collected
includes participant observations, informal and formal student interviews, and a
researcher-designed survey. Social capital consists of interaction among individuals
(networks), social rules that encourage interactions such as trust and reciprocity (norms),
and the value of these networks and norms to the individual and the group. A large body
of evidence suggests that social capital is valuable in terms of retention and multiple
measures of academic achievement. The importance of social capital in retention was
verified by students that have left engineering and those that remain, in terms of
interactions with peers, teaching assistants, and engineering faculty; and a lack of sense
of community in freshman engineering courses. Students that have left engineering
differed in their perceptions of social capital from those that remain in their frustrations
with teaching methods that encourage little discussion or opportunities to ask questions
about assumptions or approaches. The open-ended nature of laboratory assignments,
extensive required troubleshooting, and lack of specific directions from the teaching
assistants were found to encourage the development of social capital in the laboratory
setting. Degree centrality, a network measure of social capital as the number of ties an
individual has within a social network, was found to be positively correlated with
laboratory grade. Student perceptions of the importance of interactions with other
students on success in the laboratory setting has a negative model effect on academic
achievement in the laboratory. In contrast, student perceptions of the quality of
interactions with teaching assistants has a positive effect on measures of academic
achievement. The results suggest that social capital is more important to some students
than others in terms of retention and academic achievement. Recommendations are made
to identify students requiring social capital to be successful, and to provide opportunities
for these students to develop social capital. / Graduation date: 2005
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/29421 |
| Date | 28 April 2005 |
| Creators | Brown, Shane |
| Contributors | Williamson, Kenneth J. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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