Paper ID #48745Enhancing self-efficacy among civil engineering undergraduates using hand-onpedagogyMr. Michael Oluwafemi Ige, Morgan State University Michael Ige is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Morgan State University, Maryland, where he is pursuing his M.Sc. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a concentration in Construction Management and Transportation Engineering. He earned his B.Tech. in Building Structure from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. Michael has extensive professional experience managing large-scale heavy
that visits to engineering schools had an impact on thestudents’ decision to enter engineering [3]. Phelps et al. [4] showed that many factors across lifestages are associated with engineering major choices, and highlighted the importance of pre-collegeexperiences in guiding students in that choice. This demonstrates that interactions with undergraduateprograms have a measurable influence on major selection, which provides a great argument for STEMoutreach from engineering schools to middle and high-school students. STEM interest in middle and high-school students is sometimes difficult to predict. It relies onmany socio-economic variables, as well as academic settings in schools. Some studies have attemptedto link these variables to
, Biological Engineer, Analytical Cell Biologist, and Engineering Education Researcher to tackle complex engineering education problems across the learner life span.Dr. Jeremy A. Magruder Waisome, University of Florida Dr. Jeremy A. Magruder Waisome is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Department at the University of Florida (UF). Her research focuses on self-efficacy and critical mentoring. She is passionate about broadening participation in engineering, leveraging evidence-based approaches to improve the engineering education environment. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 "Visualizing and Modeling a Growth Mindset in an AutoCAD course."AbstractThis Work-in
Self-Efficacy and Demographics of Makerspace Participants Across Three Universities,” Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 142, no. 10, Oct. 2020, doi: 10.1115/1.4046649.[6] J. A. Marin, J. E. Armstrong, and J. L. Kays, “Elements of an Optimal Capstone Design Experience,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 88, no. 1, pp. 19–22, Jan. 1999, doi: 10.1002/j.2168-9830.1999.tb00405.x.[7] A. R. Carberry, H. S. Lee, and M. W. Ohland, “Measuring engineering design self-efficacy,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 99, no. 1, pp. 71–79, 2010, doi: 10.1002/j.2168- 9830.2010.tb01043.x.[8] E. Kames, D. Shah, M. Clark, and B. Morkos, “A Mixed Methods Analysis of Motivation Factors in Senior
design. Thecourse’s target audience is undergraduates, serving students majoring in computer science,design, the liberal arts, and business, at a private R1 research institution. The class guidesstudents through a series of laboratory exercises and design experiences to develop theirconfidence and ability in the domains of soldering, breadboard prototyping, circuit fundamentals,and microcontrollers. This paper evaluates the impact 18-095 has had over three semesters (Fall2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024), analyzing the development of student self-efficacy, identity, andsense of belonging, as measured across three surveys each semester (n = 71). Self-efficacy forcircuit prototyping and design increased by a mean of 45.7 points between the pre-measure
final Engineering Skills Self-EfficacyScale [1]. This scale measures self-efficacy in three key areas: experimental, tinkering, anddesign. The survey will be administered again at the end of each of the following five subsequentsemesters to track changes in self-efficacy based on workshop utilization for various courses’projects.BackgroundWhile it’s widely recognized that nearly half of students who graduate from four-yearuniversities start their education at community colleges [2], the numbers are notably lower forengineering students. Only 43% of engineering graduates have attended a community college,and just 13% have earned an associate degree [3]. Community colleges also enroll a higherpercentage of underrepresented minority groups, with
participate but also to explain theimportance of AI in science to their peers and community. This enabled scholars to feel apersonal connection as their scientific project was envisioned within a real-world context. Figure 2. Google Teachable Machine [16].Measures and data sourcesThe self-reports of the children’s self-efficacy for AI were collected via a survey administeredon Qualtrics before and after the Shark AI program. Self-efficacy for AI was assessed using anadapted version of the original Science subscale (9 items) and the Technology and Engineeringsubscale (9 items) of the widely used 37-item S-STEM questionnaire developed by NorthCarolina State University’s Friday Institute [19]. Only the Science and Technology
Paper ID #49062How a Cornerstone Course Impacts Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial SkillsProf. Catalina Cortazar, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Catalina Cort´azar is a Faculty member in the engineering design area DILAB at the School of Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Cat´olica de Chile (PUC). Catalina holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Science with a focus on Engineering Education from PUC, an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons The New School for Desing, an MA in Media Studies from The New School, and a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, with a concentration in Structural Design.Gabriel
. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Design Curriculum in Introductory Circuits Laboratory Assignments and the Influence on Innovation Self-EfficacyAbstractThis paper examines the impact of integrated design elements in a second-year introductorycircuits course on students’ innovation self-efficacy (ISE). Building upon a pilot study fromSpring 2024, this research focuses on the implementation of updated laboratory assignments inone section of the course while maintaining the original curriculum in a parallel section. Theupdated curriculum emphasizes experiential learning through active learning engagement,simulation exercises, open-ended design challenges, and reflection. This allows students tonavigate the full
scale was employed to measure students' self-efficacy in engineering tasks. Thisinstrument assesses various dimensions of engineering self-efficacy, including students’confidence in their ability to succeed in engineering courses, solve technical problems, andpersist in their engineering studies [15]. The assessment of engineering self-efficacy amongstudents will be focused on several constructs, each measured through specific items that providea comprehensive understanding of students’ confidence and perceived abilities within the field ofengineering, including Factor1: Engineering Self-Efficacy, Factor 2: Engineering CareerExpectations, Factor 3: Sense of Belonging, and Factor 4: Coping Self-Efficacy.Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale
psychosocial needs of the students, with statements such as “My advisor takes aninterest in my well-being and life-work balance,” and “My advisor provides emotional supportwhen I need it.” Finally, TSE is our dependent variable and is measured by the Thesis Self-efficacy factor, measured on a confidence-anchored Likert scale and includes items that deal withthe various skills surrounding the completion of a terminal document.Participants and InstitutionsWhile our focus is set on the experiences of Latin* engineering graduate students, our surveywas open to students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. The target population could bedescribed as engineering graduate students enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs whowere actively working towards
(sense of belonging) are crucial for students pursuing STEM careers. Thesefactors influence persistence, motivation, and identity development, particularly inengineering students, helping them overcome academic challenges and lack of technicalexperience. High self-efficacy fosters resilience, goal setting, and better academic outcomes,while low levels can lead to demotivation, feelings of inadequacy, and increased dropout risk,especially during the first year. Analyzing students’ GPA is vital for understanding first-yearretention, as it serves as an early indicator of academic performance and identifies students atrisk. However, GPA alone is insufficient to capture the complexity behind academic success.Complementing GPA with measures of
. Student-focused direct measures include students’ self-efficacy and self-regulatoryfactors for writing, collected through the Metacognitive Strategy Knowledge Test (MSKT).[17]This inventory is designed to measure strategies mapped to the three stages of writing(before/planning, during/writing, and after/reflecting) predicted by Metacognitive WritingKnowledge framework,[18], [19] which provides natural subscales. To measure self-efficacy andself-regulation, the Writing Self-Regulatory Efficacy Scale (WSRES) [20] has been adopted andadministered to participating students in the Writing SySTEM. The adoption process will involveminor rewording to items to make them more realistic for a graduate engineering student.Instruments will be given prior to
not Hispanic or Latinx. More participants were also fromPWI institutions rather than HSI, MSI or HBCU schools in this year 1 cohort.Students’ Self-Efficacy Outcomes. The impact of this REU program on students’ self-efficacy andfeeling more confident in STEM was also measured in the anonymous online survey based on themodified TIDES questions. Three-quarters of the students reported increased confidence in overcomingproblems with teachers, understanding articles with STEM content, pursuing a career in STEM, andperforming well in a STEM career.Retention in STEM and Future Career Aspirations Outcomes. While only year 1 results are available,literature from REU experiences consistently demonstrate gains in research skills, academic preparation
Paper ID #47689A Summer Bridge Program Tech Challenge for Improving Self-Efficacy ofDiverse Incoming Engineering First-Year and Transfer StudentsDr. David A. Copp, University of California, Irvine David A. Copp received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Teaching at the University of California, Irvine in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Prior to joining UCI, he was a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia
Paper ID #46058Forward Fellows: An extended onboarding program to foster a sense of belongingand research self-efficacy in incoming graduate studentsDr. Anne Lynn Gillian-Daniel, University of Wisconsin - Madison Anne Lynn Gillian-Daniel has been the Education Director for the Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) since 2012 and the Wisconsin Education lead for the Wisconsin-Puerto Rico Partnership in Research and Education and Materials (WiPR2EM) since 2017. In these roles, Anne Lynn collaborates with researchers to broaden participation of historically underrepresented groups in materials
, interests, goals, and actions, that confidenceand competence are directly proportional—are insufficient, particularly with minoritized youth.Under some circumstances, students can develop a sense of self-efficacy that is not aligned withtheir actual proficiency. Those circumstances include distrust of adults in the school, awarenessof low-quality instruction, and lack of access to high-quality STEM courses. In this study,overinflated mathematics self-efficacy has negative repercussions. While intuitively low self-efficacy does not support persistence in STEM, prior research has found that high mathematicsself-efficacy (measured in high school) was associated with enrollment in a four-year institutionfor young Black women; however, this mathematics
engineers do. Related out-of-school-time experience thatinformed the creation of our program have elements of physical prototyping, but no HCDapproach explicitly stated, include programs at New York University [11], North Carolina StateUniversity [10], and Columbia University [12]. Numerous sources that have also shown thepositive effects on self-efficacy, career awareness, and STEM-identity [13] illustrate theimportance of such programs to a generation of students for which STEM careers are on the rise.Following, in this paper, we will share our program curriculum with a step-by-step guide forstudent-led project ideation and team selection to develop “Tech for Good” along withevaluation findings.3. Curriculum and Student activitiesStudents were
360-evaluation that was generalized, this new evaluation mapped all questions backto the individual definitions of the five aspects of team success. Each team member was tasked withevaluating themselves and their teammates on the degree to which they adhered to four of the fiveexpectations (respect, commitment, transparency, and communication) outlined in the team contract theywrote for themselves. This limitation to these 4 was due to the first broad implementation of thisevaluation and those metrics being deemed more immediately visible and measurable for the students.The justice portion of their contracts is intended to be addressed internally and through the gradingadjustments resulting from the evaluations to help students see the
find a balance between challenges faced and resources available to address them[15]. Insufficient challenge can lead to feelings of stagnation in an individual, but too manychallenges may lead to feeling overwhelmed. To measure feelings of being overwhelmed,including feelings of hopelessness and lack of self-efficacy in addressing challenges, thePerceived Stress Scale (PSS) [11]–[13] was also used in this study.The pressures on university students are varied, with academic pressures being a significantcontributor. In the case of engineering students, highly competitive admissions processes, both tothe first-year program and in some cases to discipline placement, result in extended periods ofgrade pressures, which can negatively impact factors
ways goals differentially impact students, I decided to investigate if, among 2engineering students, there were differences in how these goal orientations impacted Latina,Latino, and White engineering students’ self-efficacy and persistence beliefs. The aim of thiscomparison is to highlight the implications of using a theory and its related survey measures thatwere designed from the perspective of one group of students (i.e., White students).PurposeI take a Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit) lens to situate and interpret my researchfindings specifically by answering the following research questions: RQ1. Given that AGT was developed
research on higher education in the deep south. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Work in Progress: “When You Know Better, Do Better”: Measuring the Climates of University Computer Science DepartmentsIntroductionThis WIP research paper explores how computer science (CS) students perceive and experiencepostsecondary CS department environments. University CS departments have long attributed alack of diversity to perceived “deficits” (e.g., lack of access to physical devices, preparatory K-12 computing courses, computational thinking skills, self-efficacy, and interest) in students fromgroups that are historically underrepresented in computing by race, gender, socioeconomicstatus, and/or
knowledge as its subdimensions [71]. Motivational CQ is thedrive to learn about and engage in culturally diverse settings broken down into intrinsic,extrinsic, and self-efficacy components [71]. Behavioral CQ is the ability to adapt one's verbaland nonverbal behavior to suit different cultural contexts, with subdimensions related to verbal,non-verbal, and speech acts [71]. The ECQS’s expanded structure and accessible format make itparticularly suitable for this study's focus on graduate research contexts. Empirical evidence ofvalidity of the ECQS, using data from 286 participants across 30 countries, demonstrated goodmodel fit through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The analysis provided evidence ofconvergent validity and discriminant validity
as theSTEM-CIS (STEM Career Interest Survey) [15] tool measures self-efficacy and interest inSTEM classes and careers. The surveys included a pre-survey before arriving on campus, asurvey at the end of week 1 and week 2 to capture feedback on specific activities, and a post-survey at the end of BETA. All surveys were available via QR code for mobile devices. Thepost-surveys include whether students found material in the individual program sessions relevantto their goals, contained new knowledge, and presented in a learning-conducive way. The surveyof activities spanned departments in engineering [16].Additionally, we conducted pre- and post-camp focus groups. These focus groups involvedmeeting with a groups of 12-15 students in a room
responses.Descriptive statistics summarized the data characteristics, including total responses andcalculation of means and standard deviations to understand data distribution. Chi-squared Test ofIndependence tests analyzed differences in AI language model usage across gender and classstanding. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using the principal factor method was conductedon eight items to identify underlying factors of utility and self-efficacy in using LLMs foracademic purposes. The KMO measure of 0.8511 and Bartlett’s test confirmed the data'ssuitability for EFA, followed by a varimax rotation to enhance interpretability. Independent t-tests compared self-efficacy and utility value perceptions across genders and student levels. Alltests, including chi
-efficacy(general, design, and experimental), the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ), and itemsfrom the Longitudinal Assessment of Engineering Self-Efficacy (LAESE) were applied.Participation in SBP showed statistically significant differences in items that measured self-efficacy, academic readiness, sense of belonging, and knowledge about university life andindustry. However, goal orientation and career expectations did not exhibit changes. Resultssupport that the current five-pillar structure effectively promotes student success and persistencein engineering degrees for first-year students at Mississippi State University.Introduction In the United States, educational efforts aim to increase enrollment in 2- or 4-yearinstitutions right
clearer or stronger career aspirations,which could be further examined in future studies with larger and more diverse samples. Thelack of significant changes, particularly for self-efficacy and outcome expectations, may beexplained by the limited duration of the intervention. A two-week program may not providesufficient time to foster measurable shifts in students' confidence or expectations. Anotherpossible explanation for the limited change is that voluntary participation in this construction-related program may reflect a preexisting higher baseline of construction-related confidence andexpectations, resulting in a smaller observable increase.3.2 Correlation analysis for both pre-and post-programThe non-parametric method was used to analyze the
,” Turkish J. Educ., vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 64–105, 2020.14. F. Tauro, C. Youngsu, F. Rahim, et al., “Integrating mechatronics in project-based learning of Malaysian high school students and teachers,” Int. J. Mech. Eng. Educ., vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 297–320, Jun. 2017, doi: 10.1177/0306419017708636.15. A. R. Carberry, H. S. Lee, M. W. Ohland, “Measuring engineering design self‐efficacy,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 99, no. 1, pp. 71–79, 2010.16. K. M. Whitcomb, Z. Y. Kalender, T. J. Nokes-Malach, C. D. Schunn, C. Singh, “Comparison of self-efficacy and performance of engineering undergraduate women and men,” International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 36, no. 6, 1996-2014, 2020.17. M. Helms, S. S. Vattam, A. K. Goel
with their support, participation, and control function across all administrative decisionsregarding personnel, social, and organizational measures at the university. Within the equalityconcept of H-BRS’s EEO, P12-acitivities are offered to female pre-college pupils to give themthe chance to overcome structural, social, and personal barriers.The P12-activities at H-BRS are organized and carried out by staff of the Equal OpportunitiesOffice with the aim of empowering female pupils especially in the fields of engineering andcomputer science and to raise the proportion for female enrollment and retention. Based onBandura's self-efficacy framework [5], the activities are intentionally designed as correctiveexperiences to overcome self-debilitating
belongingintervention, programming self-efficacy, and course grade for first-year engineering students.Improving the retention of undergraduate students in engineering pathways requires clearframeworks that include predictors and influences on continued enrollment in engineering courses.The persistence of Black, Latiné, or Indigenous (BLI) students remains lower than their peers anddisproportionate to the U.S. population [1]. The persistence of engineering students remains amajor concern with BLI students demonstrating disproportionate attrition in comparison to Whiteand Asian peers. This increased attrition from engineering pathways is often related to systematicexclusion and marginalization in engineering environments [2]-[5]. While some progress has