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The Changing Tides: How Engineering Environments Play a Role in Self-Efficacy Belief Modification

Abstract

Self-efficacy beliefs are the beliefs people hold about their abilities to complete the tasks that they deem necessary to achieve success. Efficacy beliefs influence the choices people make, the effort they put forth, and the degree to which they persist in the face of obstacles. Attempts to understand how students shape their efficacy for learning are therefore invaluable to educators. Previously, we used qualitative measures to investigate the self-efficacy beliefs of first-year engineering students. That study revealed that early engineering students most frequently based their confidence in success on social comparisons – their perceptions of how their engineering abilities compared to those of their classmates. In an extension of that study, we have expanded our investigation to include nine second-year engineering students. One-on-one interviews with five women and four men are compared to discussions with first-year students. These comparisons have shed light on how students build and modify their efficacy beliefs as they advance in the engineering curriculum.

Second-year students were interviewed while enrolled in Chemical Engineering Calculations (CHE 205) during the fall of 2005 or the spring of 2006. CHE 205 is the first discipline-specific engineering course in the chemical engineering curriculum at Purdue University. Results, based on a phenomenographical analysis, were compared to those obtained previously from interviews with first-year engineering students. This comparative analysis provided insights into how adaptation to college life and experience with discipline-specific coursework influence engineering students’ efficacy beliefs. The open dialogue we have achieved with these students has provided us with rich, personal accounts of how students perceive the second-year engineering learning environment. Findings can help educators understand how the learning environment they create might dictate the choices, effort, and persistence exhibited by their students. Informed by such an understanding, modifications to the engineering learning environment, aimed at promoting positive efficacy beliefs, are suggested. Ultimately, these modifications hold promise for increasing diversity in engineering, improving student satisfaction and success, and increasing student retention.

Introduction

In recent years, there has been a growing call for colleges and universities to produce more flexible, innovative engineering students.1-3 This call echoes the concerns of engineering educators who have recognized that the retention issues plaguing the field may be adversely affecting the diversity of the future engineering workforce. Aimed at improving the retention and success of students in the field, research efforts have been focused on the choices, achievement, and interests of undergraduate engineering students. These efforts have resulted in findings indicating that students’ choices to pursue and persist in engineering, and their achievement and interest in the field, are significantly influenced by their engineering self-efficacy beliefs4, 5 – their confidence in their abilities to perform the tasks that they deem necessary to succeed in the engineering environment.

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Hutchison, M., & Follman, D., & Bodner, G. (2007, June), The Changing Tides: How Engineering Environments Play A Role In Self Efficacy Belief Modification Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2397