Board 373: Research Initiation: Understanding Interactions Between Affect and Identity in First- and Second-Year Engineering Students

Emma Treadway; Jessica E S Swenson

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: June 26, 2024
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--46957
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46957
Download Count: 58

Paper Authors

biography

Emma Treadway Trinity University orcid.org/0000-0002-2986-7674

visit author page

Emma Treadway received the B.S. degree in Engineering Science from Trinity University in 2011, and her M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2017 and 2019, respectively. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Science at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

visit author page

biography

Jessica E S Swenson University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

visit author page

Jessica Swenson is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo. She was awarded her doctorate and masters from Tufts University in mechanical engineering and STEM education respectively, and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan. Her research work aims to improve the learning experience for undergraduate students by examining conceptual knowledge gains, affect, identity development, engineering judgment, and problem solving.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Students’ development of their engineering identity is known to play an important role in their decision to persist within the major. The first two years of students’ experiences are particularly critical, as most students who persist beyond this point will likely remain in engineering. While identity has been explored from many different perspectives, the influence of students’ affect on identity development has not been addressed. Existing models of affect and engineering identity suggest that local affect (the changing emotions that students experience during disciplinary activity) and global affect (the broad attitudes, values, and beliefs that students hold about a discipline) have potential to influence and interact with engineering identity (performance/competence, interest, and recognition), and in turn, to influence retention.

While affect has been found to be critical to learning and problem-solving in the fields of mathematics and science education, it has not been widely explored as widely in engineering education. As much of engineering students’ early required coursework takes place in mathematics and science departments, it is important to explore students’ affective experiences not only in their engineering classes but also in mathematics and science. Further, while affect has been widely studied using qualitative methods, our parallel use of qualitative interviews and piloting of quantitative survey instruments will contribute to the development of quantitative measures of affect that can be employed by others in STEM education.

This work seeks to address gaps within our understanding of affect in engineering students, as well as to develop a model of interactions between engineering identity and affect, building primarily on Godwin’s identity model (2016) and DeBellis and Goldin’s affect model (2006). Our study aims to address three research questions: (1) How are 1st and 2nd year engineering students’ local affect different or the same while doing engineering work vs. mathematics and science work? (2) Over the course of their early college experiences with mathematics, science, and engineering, how do students’ global affect about mathematics, science, and engineering change? (3) How do students’ local and global affect about mathematics, science, and engineering contribute to/interact with their identities, including engineering identity?

This study is taking a mixed-methods approach. We have recruited two cohorts of students, who have agreed to participate in interviews and/or surveys at the end of each of their first four semesters pursuing coursework towards an engineering degree at a small private university in the southwestern United States. Using case study methodology, we are developing a model of the interactions between affect and engineering identity. The survey data is being used to inform the development of quantitative instruments for measuring affect, and to contextualize the interviews. This work will improve understanding of how students’ affective experiences in mathematics, science, and engineering courses contribute to or prevent the formation of their engineering identities, which in turn contributes to their decision to pursue or leave engineering. Because we plan to examine the influence of other identities on the affect-engineering identity relationship, this work could support participation and retention of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering.

Citation
Format

Treadway, E., & Swenson, J. E. S. (2024, June), Board 373: Research Initiation: Understanding Interactions Between Affect and Identity in First- and Second-Year Engineering Students Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--46957

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Students’ development of their engineering identity is known to play an important role in their decision to persist within the major. The first two years of students’ experiences are particularly critical, as most students who persist beyond this point will likely remain in engineering. While identity has been explored from many different perspectives, the influence of students’ affect on identity development has not been addressed. Existing models of affect and engineering identity suggest that local affect (the changing emotions that students experience during disciplinary activity) and global affect (the broad attitudes, values, and beliefs that students hold about a discipline) have potential to influence and interact with engineering identity (performance/competence, interest, and recognition), and in turn, to influence retention.

While affect has been found to be critical to learning and problem-solving in the fields of mathematics and science education, it has not been widely explored as widely in engineering education. As much of engineering students’ early required coursework takes place in mathematics and science departments, it is important to explore students’ affective experiences not only in their engineering classes but also in mathematics and science. Further, while affect has been widely studied using qualitative methods, our parallel use of qualitative interviews and piloting of quantitative survey instruments will contribute to the development of quantitative measures of affect that can be employed by others in STEM education. 

This work seeks to address gaps within our understanding of affect in engineering students, as well as to develop a model of interactions between engineering identity and affect, building primarily on Godwin’s identity model (2016) and DeBellis and Goldin’s affect model (2006). Our study aims to address three research questions:
(1) How are 1st and 2nd year engineering students’ local affect different or the same while doing engineering work vs. mathematics and science work?
(2) Over the course of their early college experiences with mathematics, science, and engineering, how do students’ global affect about mathematics, science, and engineering change?
(3) How do students’ local and global affect about mathematics, science, and engineering contribute to/interact with their identities, including engineering identity? 

This study is taking a mixed-methods approach. We have recruited two cohorts of students, who have agreed to participate in interviews and/or surveys at the end of each of their first four semesters pursuing coursework towards an engineering degree at a small private university in the southwestern United States. Using case study methodology, we are developing a model of the interactions between affect and engineering identity. The survey data is being used to inform the development of quantitative instruments for measuring affect, and to contextualize the interviews. This work will improve understanding of how students’ affective experiences in mathematics, science, and engineering courses contribute to or prevent the formation of their engineering identities, which in turn contributes to their decision to pursue or leave engineering. Because we plan to examine the influence of other identities on the affect-engineering identity relationship, this work could support participation and retention of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering.
AU  - Emma Treadway
AU  - Jessica E S Swenson
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 373: Research Initiation: Understanding Interactions Between Affect and Identity in First- and Second-Year Engineering Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/46957
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--46957
ER  -