Asee peer logo

Are Engineering Students Culturally Intelligent?: Preliminary Results from a Multiple Group Study

Download Paper |

Conference

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

San Antonio, Texas

Publication Date

June 10, 2012

Start Date

June 10, 2012

End Date

June 13, 2012

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Global Engineering Education: Cross-cultural Awareness and Social Impacts

Tagged Division

International

Page Count

10

Page Numbers

25.204.1 - 25.204.10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--20964

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/20964

Download Count

517

Request a correction

Paper Authors

author page

Andrea Mazzurco Purdue University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-7240-582X

biography

Brent K. Jesiek Purdue University, West Lafayette

visit author page

Brent K. Jesiek is Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering Education and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., USA. He is also an Associate Director of Purdue’s Global Engineering Program, and leads the Global Engineering Education Collaboratory (GEEC) research group. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Michigan Tech and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Virginia Tech. His research involves social, cultural, historical, and epistemological studies of global engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and engineering education research.

visit author page

author page

Kavitha D. Ramane Purdue University

Download Paper |

Abstract

Are Engineering Students Culturally Intelligent?: Preliminary Results of a Multi-Institutional SurveyThere is growing awareness that the engineer of the future must be able to live and work in themidst of diverse perspectives, including across disciplines, cultures, and stakeholder groups. Thispaper proposes “cultural intelligence” (CQ) as an important attribute for this type of“multiperspectival” engineer. Generally viewed as a measure of a person’s ability to functioneffectively in multi-cultural environments, CQ is typically understood as involving a mix ofcognitive, meta-cognitive, behavioral, and motivational dimensions, and is usually measured bymeans of a valid and reliable 20-question survey instrument. This paper begins with a review ofrelevant literature, including prior studies of cross-cultural competence in engineering, and adiscussion of how cultural intelligence fits into a larger conceptual framework for globalcompetency in engineering education and practice. We then present preliminary results from astudy of CQ involving more than two hundred engineering students at two U.S. universities. Wepay particular attention to variations in CQ scores related to factors such as gender, student level(i.e., from first-year to senior), nationality, linguistic ability, prior experience living abroad, andplanned involvement in global educational experiences (e.g. study abroad, etc.). These results arethen used to discuss a series of implications and recommendations for engineering educators andadministrators, including some observed benefits and disadvantages of the CQ instrument, and areview of various teaching and learning strategies that may be used to enhance the CQ ofengineering students. The paper concludes by discussing how CQ can be used as part of anintegrated assessment model for global engineering programs that brings together measures ofsojourn readiness, cross-cultural competence, and global engineering competency.

Mazzurco, A., & Jesiek, B. K., & Ramane, K. D. (2012, June), Are Engineering Students Culturally Intelligent?: Preliminary Results from a Multiple Group Study Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--20964

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015