Comparing The Transformative Experiences of Two Cohorts of a First-Year Engineering Program

This research paper describes transformative learning experiences of first-year engineering students. Transformative learning methods aim to equip students with the necessary skills to address $21^{\text{st}}$ century challenges by fundamentally altering their frame of reference. A student's frame of reference encompasses their habits of mind and personal point of view, which are influenced by past learning experiences and cultural norms. This paper examines a first-year engineering program at a midwestern (USA) institution to investigate the extent of transformative learning experiences and their impact on perceived changes in students' habits of mind. The study involves a sample of 90 students from the 2021–2022 academic year and 161 students from the 2023–2024 academic year. Participants completed a Qualtrics survey at the end of their second semester in engineering. The survey included items related to stages of transformative learning, habit of mind dimensions, factors influencing changes in habits of mind and demographic details. Based on the characteristics of the transformation journey, four clusters of students will be identified: 1. Students who experienced Profound Transformation through disorienting dilemmas, self-reflection, experimenting, and acting. 2. Students who experienced a disorienting dilemma without subsequent action. 3. Students who experienced Straightforward Transformation, characterized by experimenting and acting without a disorienting dilemma. 4. Students who experienced no transformation. It was found that the distribution of students was similar in both the years for all four clusters. The study found that for both cohorts, most students were in the profound transformation category, followed by no transformation, straightforward transformation and the least students were in the reflection without action categories.