공학적 공감능력 검사도구 개발 및 타당화 연구

Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Engineering Empathy

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an Engineering Empathy Instrument. Engineering empathy is defined as the ability that encompasses the following three qualities, a skill to interpret social issues and phenomenon that may occur in the process of interactions between human beings and engineering systems, a practical orientation that enables one to take stakeholders’ perspectives to carry out an engineering project, and a professional way of being that acknowledges empathic skills and associated practice orientations. Based on this notion, we develop a scale to measure engineering empathy and have surveyed 429 engineering students. Evidence for the validity and reliability of the scale is presented. In conclusion, we find that engineering empathy can be measured and conceptualized as three domains: a Learnable Skill (ELS), a Practical Orientation (EPO), and a Professional Way (EPW). We also find that sophomores show the highest level of engineering empathy as compared with other graders. While students accumulate technical knowledge, their understanding about engineering in social and interpretational contexts gets weakened. This implies that engineering education necessarily emphasizes the impacts of engineering solutions in interpersonal, societal, technologies, and environmental contexts.