Using Discourse Analysis to Investigate Conversations during Engineering Brainstorming Activities

Benjamin David Lutz; Aimee Tai Chiem; Christianna Bethel

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference
Location: Vancouver
Publication Date: May 12, 2022
Start Date: May 12, 2022
End Date: May 14, 2022
Conference Session: Case Studies
Tagged Topic: Conference Submission
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44757
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/44757
Download Count: 86

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Paper Authors

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Benjamin David Lutz California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo orcid.org/0000-0003-2637-0942

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Ben Lutz is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is the leader of the Critical Research in Engineering and Technology Education (CREATE) group at Cal Poly. His research interests include critical pedagogies; efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering, engineering design theory and practice; conceptual change and understanding; and school-to-work transitions for new engineers. His current work explores a range of engineering education design contexts, including the role of power in brainstorming activities, epistemological and conceptual development of undergraduate learning assistants, as well as the experiences of recent engineering graduates as they navigate new organizational cultures.

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Aimee Tai Chiem California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

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Christianna Bethel

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Abstract

Brainstorming is a crucial component of the engineering design process and the activities and conversations that take place during conceptual ideation can have significant downstream impacts on the design process and influence the outcomes of the overall project. While researchers have focused on the outcomes of brainstorming and the ideas that student teams generate, the role of discourse and conversation during these activities remains relatively underexplored. The purpose of this paper is to provide a codebook that can be used to analyze the discourse of engineering teams during conceptual brainstorming activities. The use of discourse analysis can offer a deeper understanding of how engineering students interact with one another, and the ways different kinds of discourse can lead to different ideation outcomes. We recruited mechanical engineering students from a large public university to participate in brainstorming sessions typical of preliminary or conceptual design phases. Each group was given the same task of collaborating for 45 minutes to create as many ideas as possible for wheelchair-accessible playground equipment and experiences. We combined existing research with emergent findings from our own data to develop a codebook that characterizes the range of “discursive moves” that engineering students use during collaborative brainstorming. Our codebook identified 11 different kinds of utterances that occurred during conceptual brainstorming activities. These codes capture instances in which students offered new ideas, as well as the ways students reacted to, built upon, and more generally engaged with these ideas. Further, when applicable, these 11 “discursive moves” were broken down using subcodes to identify the specific nature of a given comment or utterance. Our findings offer a useful framework for characterizing discourse during engineering brainstorming activities. We can use these codes to count the number and kind of utterances made by each student during brainstorming and explore relationships between the nature of the dialogue on one hand and ideation effectiveness on the other. Analysis is ongoing and is currently being used to explore differences across teams of varying gender compositions. The frequency of these code occurrences can also be compared to other factors within ideation to gain a greater understanding of how intergroup interactions affect various aspects of engineering design. With this, educators will be able to better support both creativity and equity within their classrooms and promote effective design skills through student interactions.

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Format

Lutz, B. D., & Chiem, A. T., & Bethel, C. (2022, May), Using Discourse Analysis to Investigate Conversations during Engineering Brainstorming Activities Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference, Vancouver. 10.18260/1-2--44757

TY - CPAPER
AB - Brainstorming is a crucial component of the engineering design process and the activities and conversations that take place during conceptual ideation can have significant downstream impacts on the design process and influence the outcomes of the overall project. While researchers have focused on the outcomes of brainstorming and the ideas that student teams generate, the role of discourse and conversation during these activities remains relatively underexplored. The purpose of this paper is to provide a codebook that can be used to analyze the discourse of engineering teams during conceptual brainstorming activities. The use of discourse analysis can offer a deeper understanding of how engineering students interact with one another, and the ways different kinds of discourse can lead to different ideation outcomes.
We recruited mechanical engineering students from a large public university to participate in brainstorming sessions typical of preliminary or conceptual design phases. Each group was given the same task of collaborating for 45 minutes to create as many ideas as possible for wheelchair-accessible playground equipment and experiences. We combined existing research with emergent findings from our own data to develop a codebook that characterizes the range of “discursive moves” that engineering students use during collaborative brainstorming. Our codebook identified 11 different kinds of utterances that occurred during conceptual brainstorming activities. These codes capture instances in which students offered new ideas, as well as the ways students reacted to, built upon, and more generally engaged with these ideas. Further, when applicable, these 11 “discursive moves” were broken down using subcodes to identify the specific nature of a given comment or utterance.
Our findings offer a useful framework for characterizing discourse during engineering brainstorming activities. We can use these codes to count the number and kind of utterances made by each student during brainstorming and explore relationships between the nature of the dialogue on one hand and ideation effectiveness on the other. Analysis is ongoing and is currently being used to explore differences across teams of varying gender compositions. The frequency of these code occurrences can also be compared to other factors within ideation to gain a greater understanding of how intergroup interactions affect various aspects of engineering design. With this, educators will be able to better support both creativity and equity within their classrooms and promote effective design skills through student interactions.

AU - Benjamin David Lutz
AU - Aimee Tai Chiem
AU - Christianna Bethel
CY - Vancouver
DA - 2022/05/12
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Using Discourse Analysis to Investigate Conversations during Engineering Brainstorming Activities
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/44757
DO - 10.18260/1-2--44757
ER -