Board 203: A Research Study on Assessing Empathic Formation in Engineering Design

Design is a prominent aspect of engineering education and developing empathy in engineering graduates through design is becoming an essential part of engineering education. However, we need a robust way to measure empathic development in engineering. The primary objective of this study is to provide the engineering design community with a contextually valid instrument for measuring empathy in undergraduate engineering design contexts. We aim to address three primary objectives: (1) To expand and modify a pilot instrument for assessing empathy in engineering design via co-creation with a diverse group of engineering design instructors and student interviews; (2) To test and validate an instrument for assessing empathic formation in engineering design via a multi-methods research design which includes formative feedback from design educators, a pilot student sample, and a large student sample that includes multiple university sites and disciplines; and (3) To identify changes in empathy types across engineering design when applying the instrument in multiple disciplinary design contexts and by accounting for how instructional design contexts and practices influence empathic formation. At the time of this writing, this project is concluding Year 1, but emergent findings have supported the need for a contextually valid assessment in engineering design. Moreover, this project has begun fostering community among a small group of design instructors. Upon completion of this work, this project will generate an instructional tool for assessing empathy in engineering design, new knowledge on best practices for promoting empathic formation in engineering design, and community among design instructors who are interested in empathy in engineering design.