Admitting engineering students with the best chance of success: technological literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI)

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dc.contributor.authorLuckay, Melanie B
dc.contributor.authorCollier-Reed, Brandon I
dc.date2011-08
dc.date.accessioned2014-09-23T14:15:02Z
dc.date.available2014-09-23T14:15:02Z
dc.date.issued2014-09-23
dc.descriptionThis is an extract, with permission, from the proceedings of the 2011 SASEE Conference.
dc.description.abstractIn this article we describe the development and validation of an instrument – the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI). The instrument can be used to determine whether an applicant’s level of technological literacy is suitable for admission to an engineering programme. It might be argued that students entering an engineering programme should demonstrate a level of technological literacy, not sought during the admission process at most universities in South Africa, which rely primarily on the National Benchmark Testing instrument and the National Senior Certificate examination results. The items used in the TPI were drawn from a previous study (Collier-Reed, 2006) and were based on a rigorous qualitative analysis of interview data which was in turn informed by categories that emerged from a phenomenographic analysis. Data were collected from 198 Engineering and 237 Commerce students and the items subjected to exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach alpha testing. The result of the analysis was a modified version of the TPI where the data were found to be reliable and valid. The significant factors that defined the ‘nature of technology’ were found to be the view of technology as either an artefact or related to a process, while those constituting ‘interaction with technological artefacts’ were direction and tinkering. A cohort analysis suggests that the anecdotal view of the possible difference in technological literacy between Commerce and Engineering students is supported by the data – Commerce students are statistically more likely to view technology as an artefact and interact with technological artefacts only when directed to do so, a less technologically literate position. Further work involves determining how to meaningfully combine the scores achieved by an individual completing the TPI to ultimately determine a score indicative of their applicable level of technological literacy.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationLuckay, M. B., & Collier-Reed, B. I. (2014). <i>Admitting engineering students with the best chance of success: technological literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI)</i>. Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South African Society for Engineering Education. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7668en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationLuckay, Melanie B, and Brandon I Collier-Reed. "Admitting engineering students with the best chance of success: technological literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI)." 2011-08, Stellenbosch, Cape Town. South African Society for Engineering Education. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7668.en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationLuckay, M., & Collier-Reed, B. I. (2011). Admitting Engineering Students with the Best Chance of Success: Technological Literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI). Paper presented at the 1st Biennial Conference of the South African Society for Engineering Education, Stellenbosch, 133-144.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Conference Paper AU - Luckay, Melanie B AU - Collier-Reed, Brandon I AB - In this article we describe the development and validation of an instrument – the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI). The instrument can be used to determine whether an applicant’s level of technological literacy is suitable for admission to an engineering programme. It might be argued that students entering an engineering programme should demonstrate a level of technological literacy, not sought during the admission process at most universities in South Africa, which rely primarily on the National Benchmark Testing instrument and the National Senior Certificate examination results. The items used in the TPI were drawn from a previous study (Collier-Reed, 2006) and were based on a rigorous qualitative analysis of interview data which was in turn informed by categories that emerged from a phenomenographic analysis. Data were collected from 198 Engineering and 237 Commerce students and the items subjected to exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach alpha testing. The result of the analysis was a modified version of the TPI where the data were found to be reliable and valid. The significant factors that defined the ‘nature of technology’ were found to be the view of technology as either an artefact or related to a process, while those constituting ‘interaction with technological artefacts’ were direction and tinkering. A cohort analysis suggests that the anecdotal view of the possible difference in technological literacy between Commerce and Engineering students is supported by the data – Commerce students are statistically more likely to view technology as an artefact and interact with technological artefacts only when directed to do so, a less technologically literate position. Further work involves determining how to meaningfully combine the scores achieved by an individual completing the TPI to ultimately determine a score indicative of their applicable level of technological literacy. CY - Stellenbosch, Cape Town DA - 2014-09-23 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - technological literacy KW - nature of technology KW - instrument KW - technology education LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PP - Stellenbosch, Cape Town PY - 2014 T1 - Admitting engineering students with the best chance of success: technological literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI) TI - Admitting engineering students with the best chance of success: technological literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI) UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7668 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/7668
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationLuckay MB, Collier-Reed BI, Admitting engineering students with the best chance of success: technological literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI). ; 2011-08; Stellenbosch, Cape Town. South African Society for Engineering Education; 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7668 .en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisherSouth African Society for Engineering Educationen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Mechanical Engineeringen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.publisher.locationStellenbosch, Cape Townen_ZA
dc.relation.ispartofseries1st Biennial Conference of the South African Society for Engineering Educationen_ZA
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjecttechnological literacyen_ZA
dc.subjectnature of technologyen_ZA
dc.subjectinstrumenten_ZA
dc.subjecttechnology educationen_ZA
dc.titleAdmitting engineering students with the best chance of success: technological literacy and the Technological Profile Inventory (TPI)en_ZA
dc.typeConference Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceConference paperen_ZA
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