Shifting Students’ Perceptions About Homelessness: Quantitative Assessment of a Project-Based Approach

Although engineering institutional bodies uphold public welfare and the impact of engineering on people and society, engineering curricula rarely scaffold students to connect their technical learning with sociotechnical perspectives. This paper describes a project-based learning approach where engineering students engaged with issues faced by people experiencing homelessness to better understand the sociotechnical nature of effective, user-centered, engineering design. We conducted a quantitative assessment to determine how well and in what ways the project-based learning curriculum shifted students’ perceptions about homelessness. We collected pre-/post-survey data from students on 21 statements about their perceptions and attitudes about homelessness prior to and after an engineering project with a focus on homelessness in San Diego, CA, USA. The study aimed to measure the effectiveness of the course/project on shifting students’ perceptions from myths about homelessness towards reality, which supported the course objectives regarding diversity, inclusion, and social justice. We found that, from data from 166 students over 8 semesters, students’ perceptions had statistically significant (p < 0.05) shifts in five survey statements, which regarded beliefs about the personal choices or perceived moral decisions of those experiencing homelessness, and that students were able to more strongly identify with an engineer’s duty to care for those experiencing homelessness.