Assessing the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge in the Affective Domain

Norman D. Dennis; Decker B. Hains; Horst Brandes

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Educational & Professional Issues of Strategic Importance to the Civil Engineering Profession and ASCE II
Tagged Division: Civil Engineering
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--29825
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/29825
Download Count: 941

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Norman D. Dennis Jr. P.E. University of Arkansas

visit author page

Norman D. Dennis, Jr., is a University Professor of Civil Engineering serving as the Senior Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Before joining the U of A faculty in 1996, he served in the US Army as an engineer officer for 24 years. During his military career Dennis had the unique opportunity to build roads, airfields and other facilities on five different continents and spend over 11 years as a member of the faculty at the US Military Academy. His current research interests include laboratory and field determination of geotechnical material properties for transportation systems and the use of remote sensing techniques to categorize geohazards. He has published over 85 peer reviewed articles relating to his research and educational activities. Dennis holds BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology), an MBA from Boston University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas-Austin. He is a registered professional engineer in Arkansas and Colorado.

visit author page

biography

Decker B. Hains Western Michigan University

visit author page

Dr. Decker B. Hains is a Master Faculty Specialist in the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering at Western Michigan University. He is a retired US Army Officer serving 22 years on active duty with the US Army Corps of Engineers and taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point (USMA). He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from USMA in 1994, Master of Science degrees from the University of Alaska Anchorage in Arctic Engineering in 1998 and Missouri University Science & Technology in Civil Engineering in 1999, and a PhD in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University in 2004. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Michigan.

visit author page

biography

Horst Brandes P.E. University of Hawaii

visit author page

Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Hawaii.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Assessing the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge in the Affective Domain

The American Society of Civil Engineers created the first Body of Knowledge for Civil Engineering (BOK) in 2003. In that document a distinguished group of educators and practitioners outlined the general knowledge all civil engineers should possess. The document defined fifteen distinct outcomes that should be achieved through a combination of education and experience at the time of licensure. Further, a level of attainment was defined for each outcome, which loosely followed the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the Cognitive Domain created by Bloom and his examiner colleagues in 1956. In the first edition only the equivalent of the lowest three levels of the taxonomy were used; recognize, understand and apply. When the second edition of the BOK was published in 2008 the number of desired outcomes was increased from 15 to 24 and the levels of attainment for each outcome were defined by working statements that covered the continuum of Bloom’s Taxonomy from Remember to Evaluate. Target levels of attainment were defined for completion of the baccalaureate degree, the MS/plus 30 and at the time of licensure. When the ASCE task committee convened to look at the creation of a third edition of the BOK, surveys were sent to a large number of ASCE members to ascertain what members felt should be included in the BOK. Based on the results of the surveys, a pre-draft list of desired outcomes tentatively grew from 24 to 36. At this stage, the BOK task committee felt that a number of the new proposed outcomes as well as some of the existing outcomes required not only cognitive knowledge of the outcome, but also a sense of ownership or internal valuing of the outcome. Hence the committee investigated assessing each outcome in the affective domain, using the Taxonomy of Education Objectives Volume II - Affective Domain as a guide. This taxonomy was created by a sub group of the educational examiners, led by David Krathwohl, who participated in the creation of the taxonomy for the cognitive domain. This paper will provide a primer on assessment in the affective domain and describe the process used to determine which outcomes would be assessed in the affective domain along with the procedures for crafting a set of attainment statements for the various defined levels of the affective domain. While the committee crafted statements in the affective domain that were similar in format to the statements of cognitive achievement found in the 2nd edition of the BOK, it concluded that the ability to measure attainment in the affective domain was far less certain than measuring attainment in the cognitive domain and that a list of potential activities could be used to aid in assessment. The paper will provide interim versions of the affective domain attainment statements as well as a set of example activities that one could use to demonstrate attainment of a particular level in the continuum of the affective domain for a given outcome. COORDINATING NOTE: This draft paper is submitted at the specific invitation and request of Tom Lenox, the coordinator of the ASCE Liaison Committee’s session(s) for the CE Division of ASEE in 2018. It should be considered for inclusion in the session “Educational & Professional Issues of Strategic Importance to the Civil Engineering Profession – and ASCE.” that Tom Lenox is organizing.

Citation
Format

Dennis, N. D., & Hains, D. B., & Brandes, H. (2018, June), Assessing the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge in the Affective Domain Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--29825

TY - CPAPER
AB - Assessing the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge in the Affective Domain

The American Society of Civil Engineers created the first Body of Knowledge for Civil Engineering (BOK) in 2003. In that document a distinguished group of educators and practitioners outlined the general knowledge all civil engineers should possess. The document defined fifteen distinct outcomes that should be achieved through a combination of education and experience at the time of licensure. Further, a level of attainment was defined for each outcome, which loosely followed the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the Cognitive Domain created by Bloom and his examiner colleagues in 1956. In the first edition only the equivalent of the lowest three levels of the taxonomy were used; recognize, understand and apply. When the second edition of the BOK was published in 2008 the number of desired outcomes was increased from 15 to 24 and the levels of attainment for each outcome were defined by working statements that covered the continuum of Bloom’s Taxonomy from Remember to Evaluate. Target levels of attainment were defined for completion of the baccalaureate degree, the MS/plus 30 and at the time of licensure.
When the ASCE task committee convened to look at the creation of a third edition of the BOK, surveys were sent to a large number of ASCE members to ascertain what members felt should be included in the BOK. Based on the results of the surveys, a pre-draft list of desired outcomes tentatively grew from 24 to 36. At this stage, the BOK task committee felt that a number of the new proposed outcomes as well as some of the existing outcomes required not only cognitive knowledge of the outcome, but also a sense of ownership or internal valuing of the outcome. Hence the committee investigated assessing each outcome in the affective domain, using the Taxonomy of Education Objectives Volume II - Affective Domain as a guide. This taxonomy was created by a sub group of the educational examiners, led by David Krathwohl, who participated in the creation of the taxonomy for the cognitive domain.
This paper will provide a primer on assessment in the affective domain and describe the process used to determine which outcomes would be assessed in the affective domain along with the procedures for crafting a set of attainment statements for the various defined levels of the affective domain. While the committee crafted statements in the affective domain that were similar in format to the statements of cognitive achievement found in the 2nd edition of the BOK, it concluded that the ability to measure attainment in the affective domain was far less certain than measuring attainment in the cognitive domain and that a list of potential activities could be used to aid in assessment. The paper will provide interim versions of the affective domain attainment statements as well as a set of example activities that one could use to demonstrate attainment of a particular level in the continuum of the affective domain for a given outcome.
COORDINATING NOTE: This draft paper is submitted at the specific invitation and request of Tom Lenox, the coordinator of the ASCE Liaison Committee’s session(s) for the CE Division of ASEE in 2018. It should be considered for inclusion in the session “Educational &amp; Professional Issues of Strategic Importance to the Civil Engineering Profession – and ASCE.” that Tom Lenox is organizing.
AU - Norman D. Dennis Jr. P.E.
AU - Decker B. Hains
AU - Horst Brandes P.E.
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Assessing the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge in the Affective Domain
UR - https://peer.asee.org/29825
DO - 10.18260/1-2--29825
ER -