Parents’ Knowledge, Attitude and Behavior on Pre-college Engineering Education Course (WIP)
Abstract
Pre-college students’ Parents’ perspectives on education play a crucial role in their children’s learning outcomes and future development. While the importance of engineering education has received attention from instructional design and school systems, parent-related factors remain unclear. [Project Name REDACTED] aims to provide well-designed engineering courses for high school students who seek to make engineering deeply and meaningfully accessible to the world. Moreover, [Project Name REDACTED] encourages partnerships through communities and schools, allowing parents to engage with and better assist their children. This work-in-progress paper attempts to understand parents’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KAB) in engineering and engineering education, exploring potential opportunities to translate parents’ positive mindsets into actionable support.The study conducted three semi-structured interviews with four parents whose children were enrolled in [Project Name REDACTED] courses in 2022. After transcribing the interview content, the first two authors conducted qualitative analysis with two rounds of coding. In the first round, we used KAB as the coding category. After discussion, an additional code, “scenario,” was added during the second round of coding to help fully capture what parents value.The preliminary results show that parents have basic ideas about engineering. Some of them have exposure due to their family background and constructed an image of their child as a diligent and talented student. They also view their children’s involvement in engineering education positively, as it benefits their college applications and career choices. However, as engineering courses do not currently count towards Advanced Placement (AP) credits, parents express concerns about balancing the time to take engineering courses and fulfill perceived AP requirements for college admission. Parents’ actions are limited by a lack of information and connections with resources, but they still try to enhance their children’s engineering education by locating teachers, identifying relevant courses, and fostering family connections. Our next step is to conduct a broader interview among parents and explore potential methods for translating parents’ knowledge and attitudes into actions. For example, we could design informational sessions for parents, create engineering activities in which parents can participate, and link local community resources in engineering. This study aims to enhance parental involvement in engineering education by providing actionable insights and recommendations, ultimately supporting schools and policymakers in creating a more inclusive and effective educational environment.
