Engineering technology vs. engineering students: Differences in perception and understanding

Engineering technology students either are studied under the auspices of research focused on engineering students, or are excluded from engineering research in its entirety. Even when they are included in research, our understanding of engineering technology students is either missing or obscured. The lack of available research focused on engineering technology students in particular has prompted an effort to contribute to the greater body of knowledge of engineering technology education. The lack of research, as compared to other STEM fields, presents a challenge to practitioners in engineering technology programs when making discipline-specific decisions regarding these particular students. The need to delineate and determine the differences in the engineering technology student population and that of the engineering student population has become increasingly evident to practitioners and researchers in the technology area. To explore the learning styles of the engineering and engineering technology students, the Gregorc Style Delineator was completed by students in both programs. This instrument is relatively well known and is designed to investigate how adults order their thoughts and perceive the world around them. This study is designed to understand the differences in the engineering technology and engineering student populations by examining their mediation channels and their psychological learning styles. By furthering our conceptual understanding of both populations, we will inform those involved with teaching, curriculum development, and administration of programs how to best interact with and teach these students. Engineering technology students think differently than engineering students and that should be reflected in how we teach them.