Ida Ngambeki

• Purdue University West Lafayette

Individuals differ in their orientation toward the people and things in their environment. This has consequences for important life choices. The authors review 15 studies on Person and Thing Orientations (PO-TO) using data from 7,450 participants to establish the nature of the constructs, their external correlates, and their predictive utility. The...

Previous theory and research suggests that individuals selectively orient primarily toward the social environment (people) or toward the physical environment (things). These orientations can be conceptualized as motivation-based complexes that influence personal preferences and interests, with consequences for important life choices. This paper exa...

As hydrologists confront the future of water resources on a globalized, resource-scarce and human-impacted planet, the educational preparation of future generations of water scientists becomes increasingly important. Although hydrology inherits a tradition of teacher-centered direct instruction - based on lecture, reading and assignment formats - a...

Background Undergraduate research is a gateway to academic careers. Understanding student perceptions of research, and links to sex differences and personality, may shed light on the small proportion of women in undergraduate engineering programs and academia. Purpose (Hypothesis)How do personality variables and beliefs about research influence men...

As hydrologists confront the future of water resources on a globalized, resource-scarce and human-impacted planet, the educational preparation of future generations of water scientists becomes increasingly important. Although hydrology inherits a tradition of teacher-centered direct instruction - based on lecture, reading and assignment formats - a...

Personal interests are a key element in encouraging careers in engineering. Evidence suggests that a lack of interest may contribute to the underrepresentation of women in engineering. The purpose of the current research was to examine differential orientations to people and things among college students and their relations to academic majors and c...

With the increasing proliferation of scientific knowledge and technological artifacts into society comes an increased need to regulate these artifacts and their use. The development and implementation of such regulations and laws in many cases requires both a technical understanding of the functioning of these artifacts and an understanding of how...

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in student performance among engineering disciplines, as measured by term GPA's. Results indicate that: 1) Women outperform men in most engineering disciplines; 2) Student performance starts low at the freshman level, drops slightly at the sophomore level, and then increases over the junior and se...

Students often graduate from a major other than that in which they first enrolled. A large proportion of this migration happens within engineering with students moving from one discipline of engineering to another. Some students migrate within engineering several times. While there has been extensive examination of why students leave engineering, v...

One means of investigating the unique relationship between engineers and things is using thing orientation. Research has demonstrated that engineering students display higher levels of thing orientation than students of other majors, and that thing orientation is strongly predictive of persistence in engineering. However the nature of thing orienta...

National debate about K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has given rise to questions about appropriate materials for engineering education from prekindergarten through grade 12. Introducing engineering in the early years entails recognition of the need for teachers to understand its content and poses the challen...

The question of the importance of interest in gaining and retaining students is relevant in all professional fields. In recent years interest has emerged as a significant factor in encouraging students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. If students choose fields of study which match their interests, they...

The number of students enrolling in engineering has declined steadily over the last fifteen years, and the number of engineers joining certain fields in engineering has decreased even more drastically. A number of studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between students’ interests and abilities and their persistence in engineering. It is th...

Recent research on career interest in children and college students (Evangelou et al., 2008) has identified large gender differences in how interested men and women are in person and things (person-thing orientation, PTO, Little, 1972). These differences lead to differences in interest in STEM and nonSTEM careers for men and women. The current rese...

Understanding how women develop a sense of professional identity in engineering, computer science, and technology can inform the design of interventions to improve their rates of entry and persistence in these fields. We seek to understand how female students conceptualize and form personal and professional identities in the context of pursing a co...

If students choose an engineering major which makes the best use of their skills and engages their interest, they are more likely to not only stay, but thrive in the field of engineering which they choose. Various institutions have recognised this and initiated programs which introduce students to the various engineering disciplines before they are...