A descriptive study of college minority and majority students´ attitudes toward engineering courses and peer study groups

The purpose of this study is to summarize a description of perceptions of undergraduate minority and majority engineering students regarding their self-concept as learners and study skills, and their attitudes toward instructors, classmates, and cooperative learning strategies. Information was collected using a survey and interviews, and data was analyzed descriptively leading to patterns of undergraduate minority and majority engineering students´ educational problems, needs, and attitudes. It is the authors´ objective to document students´ educational problems and needs when taking required courses that demand high level conceptual thinking and problem solving skills. A large portion of students taking two courses offered at the Systems and Industrial Engineering Department at The University of Arizona (USA) volunteered to complete the survey