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Perceived Advisor Support and Thesis Self-Efficacy: An Instrument Development

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 3: Mentorship and Communication in Engineering Graduate Programs

Tagged Division

Graduate Studies Division (GSD)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43880

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/43880

Download Count

158

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Paper Authors

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Abimelec Mercado Rivera Arizona State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-8899-7671

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Abimelec Mercado Rivera is a Puerto Rican doctoral student and graduate research assistant in the Engineering Education Systems and Design program at Arizona State University. Abimelec received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM) in 2016. After working in the aerospace industry, he returned to the UPRM for his MS in Mechanical Engineering in 2017, where he pursued ways to tailor ideation methods to interdisciplinary teams as part of his thesis work, and had the opportunity to teach undergraduate ME courses. His previous efforts and experiences in engineering education helped shape his overall goal of fostering human-centered education systems, which led him to pursue his PhD at ASU.

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Mayra S. Artiles Arizona State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-7604-0410

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Mayra S. Artiles is an assistant professor in engineering at the Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Her research expertise includes engineering doctoral education structure, experiences of underrepr

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Samantha Ruth Brunhaver Arizona State University

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Samantha Brunhaver, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor within The Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Her primary areas of research include engineering career pathways and decision-making, undergraduate student persistence, professional engineering practice, and faculty mentorship. Brunhaver graduated with her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

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Abstract

The path to degree completion for graduate students in engineering disciplines is fraught with challenges, but one factor that consistently shapes their persistence and success is their advising relationship. The way students perceive the support they receive from this relationship can influence their self-efficacy concerning the competences needed to finish their dissertation, thesis or applied project report. Understanding the relationship between the student’s self-efficacy towards their culminating tasks and their perception of their advisor’s support is essential, as from a motivational standpoint, it can serve as a closer proxy for degree completion.

This research paper presents the development and validation of the Advisor Support and Self-efficacy for Thesis completion (ASSET) survey, which measures two constructs: Thesis Self-efficacy and Advisor Support. The former measures graduate students’ confidence to carry out activities to complete their final academic document, while the latter measures their perception of their advisor’s support. Items for these constructs were adapted and generalized to be relevant to either doctoral or master’s level students in engineering disciplines.

We collected survey responses from 170 engineering graduate students from a large public institution in the southwestern United States. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a single factor solution for the Thesis Self-efficacy construct, while Advisor Support yielded two factors, “Research support” and “Individualized support”. Future work includes the dissemination of the ASSET survey to various graduate engineering programs, to further explore the predictive relationships between our constructs and help institutions create strategies for the success of both their graduate students and their faculty.

Mercado Rivera, A., & Artiles, M. S., & Brunhaver, S. R. (2023, June), Perceived Advisor Support and Thesis Self-Efficacy: An Instrument Development Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43880

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