Elementary Students' Perceived Images of Engineers

The number of students choosing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related careers are declining. Thus it became a worldwide challenge in the 21 st century. As public images of the engineers are unfavorable and inaccurate, misconceptions and stereotypes about engineers are prevailing. The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school students' perceived mental and pictorial images of engineers and the nature of engineering work. This study involved 512 fifth and sixth grade students (Boys: 287 and Girls: 225) from four elementary schools at one of metropolitans in South Korea. The Draw An Engineer-Korean version (DAE-K) was developed based on Draw an Engineer (DAE) and Draw a Scientist (DAS), and Song and Kim (1999)'s instruments. A pilot-tested was conducted with 33 elementary students prior to the main study. The students were asked to answer how they think the engineers would be, to draw an engineer at work, and to write the engineer's personal information and the job description. Engineers were perceived as a person fixing, building, manufacturing, working outdoors in labors' clothes such as a robe. Engineers were shown with building tools, robots, airplanes, machines, conveyor belt, etc. Moreover, compared to the scientists, engineers were perceived as less intelligent, less imaginative, and less accurate. The results of this study revealed that elementary school students had a lack of accurate images of engineers. Students' current perceived images of engineers could help educators find the baselines for the future engineering education in elementary schools. In addition, the findings of this study could also contribute to the development of engineering education in terms of gender issues, STEM career choice, and even cultural diversity.

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