Also based on the results from the factor analysis and the review of subject matter experts the
authors found that the engineering construct needed to be adjusted. Even though the original
creators of the Boston-area engineering survey found that the attitudes toward engineering
construct was reliable, with an alpha coefficient of 0.80, the research team found that the
construct did not perform as strongly under validity testing. The authors, therefore, collaborated
with engineering education experts at North Carolina State University and completed significant
revisions to the attitudes toward engineering section. Removing gender-biased items was one key
objective of this process. For example, an original pilot item read, “I would like to learn how to
make safer cosmetics.” The engineering education experts and researchers did not find this item
to be gender neutral and removed it from the construct. They also aimed to make the engineering
attitudes section a more comprehensive measure by including items relevant to engineering
careers requiring a Bachelor’s degree as well as those not requiring a Bachelor’s degree, like
technologists. The team developed new questions to include words like “design,” “create,” and
“imagine” as well as words like “build” and “fix.” They renamed the engineering section
“Engineering and Technology” to reflect the new focus on the work of not only engineers but
also of technologists and other skilled workers. It was decided that the work of technologists and
engineers is interconnected and interchangeable enough that the survey validity would increase
more by placing these items in a single construct, instead of in two separate constructs. The
revised engineering and technology construct contained 11 items.