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Exploring the Validity of the Engineering Design Self-Efficacy Scale for Secondary School Students (Research To Practice)

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Pre-College Engineering Education Division Technical Session 10

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37164

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37164

Download Count

302

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Paper Authors

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Eunsil Lee Florida International University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-1200-2412

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Eunsil Lee is a postdoctoral associate at Florida International University in the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Clothing and Textiles from Yonsei University (South Korea) with the concentration area of Nanomaterials and Biomaterials in Textiles. She began her Ph.D. study in Textile Engineering but shifted her path toward Engineering Education, earning her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Arizona State University. Her research interests center on inclusion in engineering with focuses on students’ sense of belonging, faculty and peer interactions, diversity in citizenship, and engineering doctoral education. Prior to her Ph.D., She worked as a research associate at the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, Carbon Composite Materials Research Center.

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Adam R. Carberry Arizona State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-7060

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Dr. Adam Carberry is an associate professor at Arizona State University in the Fulton Schools of Engineering, The Polytechnic School. He earned a B.S. in Materials Science Engineering from Alfred University, and received his M.S. and Ph.D., both from Tufts University, in Chemistry and Engineering Education respectively. His research investigates the development of new classroom innovations, assessment techniques, and identifying new ways to empirically understand how engineering students and educators learn. He currently serves as the Graduate Program Chair for the Engineering Education Systems and Design Ph.D. program. He is also the immediate past chair of the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN) and an associate editor for the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE). Prior to joining ASU he was a graduate student research assistant at the Tufts’ Center for Engineering Education and Outreach.

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Medha Dalal Arizona State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5705-1800

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Medha Dalal is a postdoctoral scholar in the Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She received her Ph. D. in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies with an emphasis on engineering education from the Arizona State University. Her research seeks to build capacity for engineering education stakeholders at the grassroots, while also informing policy. Three thrusts that define her research interests at the intersections of engineering, technologies, and education include, ways of thinking that address complex educational challenges, democratization of K-12 engineering education, and online and technology-based learning.

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Matthew J. Miller PhD Loyola University Chicago

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Matthew J. Miller received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Loyola University Chicago and is currently holds the Walter P. Krolikowski, SJ Endowed Chair in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology and his research interests span four related areas: multiculturalism, vocational psychology, social justice engagement, and applied psychological measurement.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to re-examine the validity evidence of the engineering design self-efficacy (EDSE) scale scores by Carberry et al. (2010) within the context of secondary education. Self-efficacy refers to individuals’ belief in their capabilities to perform a domain-specific task. In engineering education, significant efforts have been made to understand the role of self-efficacy for students considering its positive impact on student outcomes such as performance and persistence. These studies have investigated and developed measures for different domains of engineering self-efficacy (e.g., general academic, domain-general, and task-specific self-efficacy).

The EDSE scale is a frequently cited measure that examines task-specific self-efficacy within the domain of engineering design. The original scale contains nine items that are intended to represent the engineering design process. Initial score validity evidence was collected using a sample consisting of 202 respondents with varying degrees of engineering experience including undergraduate/graduate students and faculty members. This scale has been primarily used by researchers and practitioners with engineering undergraduate students to assess changes in their engineering design self-efficacy as a result of active learning interventions, such as project-based learning. Our work has begun to experiment using the scale in a secondary education context in conjunction with an increased introduction to engineering in K-12 education. Yet, there still is a need to examine score validity and reliability of this scale in non-undergraduate populations such as secondary school student populations. This study fills this important gap by testing construct validity of the original nine items of the EDSE scale, supporting proper use of the scale for researchers and practitioners.

This study was conducted as part of a larger, [Project Name] project investigating the development and implementation of a yearlong project-based engineering design course for secondary school students. Evidence of construct validity and reliability was collected using a multi-step process. First, a survey that includes the EDSE scale was administered to the project participating students at nine associated secondary schools across the US at the beginning of Spring 2020. Analysis of collected data is in progress and includes Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) on the 137 responses. The evidence of score reliability will be obtained by computing the internal consistency of each resulting factor. The resulting factor structure and items will be analyzed by comparing it with the original EDSE scale. The full paper will provide details about the psychometric evaluation of the EDSE scale. The findings from this paper will provide insights on the future usage of the EDSE scale in the context of secondary engineering education.

Lee, E., & Carberry, A. R., & Dalal, M., & Miller, M. J. (2021, July), Exploring the Validity of the Engineering Design Self-Efficacy Scale for Secondary School Students (Research To Practice) Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37164

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