Board 94: A Conceptual Model for Engineering Major Choice

Joyce B. Main; Xinrui (rose) Xu; Alexandra Marie Dukes

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 5
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--30142
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/30142
Download Count: 463

Paper Authors

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Joyce B. Main Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering) orcid.org/0000-0002-3984-533X

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Joyce B. Main is Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She holds a Ph.D. in Learning, Teaching, and Social Policy from Cornell University, and an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Xinrui (rose) Xu Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

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Xinrui (Rose) Xu is a doctoral student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She also serves as a career consultant at the Purdue University Center for Career Opportunities. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, and a Master’s degree in counseling and counselor education. Her research interests include student career development and pathways, student major choice, diversity in engineering, and student mental health.

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Alexandra Marie Dukes Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

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Alexandra Dukes is a graduate student in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering department with a concentration in Aerospace Systems at Purdue University. She is interested in broadening the diversity of engineering and the analysis of system architectures within industry. More specifically, her work examines the pathways of students into engineering and the effects of management personalities on a product life cycle.

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Abstract

Although initiatives and programs designed to broaden participation in academic institutions have generated many positive changes, the proportions of women, African American, Hispanic, and Native American students have not seen commensurate increases in engineering fields. Focusing on diversity at the discipline level has important implications for the design of effective department level programs and curricular interventions to promote participation and persistence of a broad range of students. This research study therefore applies a mixed methods approach to focus on a critical decision juncture—selection into an engineering major—to identify the prevailing patterns of engineering discipline composition. This study focuses on why students choose to major in engineering as a function of student gender, race/ethnicity, academic experiences, institutional programs, and student future plans and goals. Data comprise 39 individual student interviews, as well as over 20,000 student-level transcript data matriculating between 2001 and 2015 at a large Midwestern research university. Using organizational demography (Wharton, 1992) and social cognitive theory of self-regulation (Bandura, 1991) as theoretical frameworks, regression analyses were applied to identify factors that influence student selection into and persistence in engineering majors, while thematic analysis/grounded theory were used to analyze the interview transcripts.

Among the findings, students cite the following reasons for majoring in engineering: (1) parental influence, (2) high school teachers and programs, (3) college curriculum and programs, (4) professional/career-related aspirations, and (5) desires to help society. The authors synthesized the quantitative and qualitative findings to develop a conceptual model describing the process of major selection. Regression results show variation in likelihood of selecting certain engineering majors based on student demographic factors and first-year engineering GPA. Research findings provide important context and information for various potential applications to increase discipline-specific engineering diversity, such as developing new strategies/interventions to support success among underrepresented students, identifying overlooked areas in classroom environments, providing critical information for the development of surveys and larger-scale studies for investigating diversity across engineering. University administrators, faculty, and stakeholders could use these findings to help develop strategies to encourage more women and underrepresented students to pursue engineering and to consider more fully the wide range of engineering disciplines available.

Citation
Format

Main, J. B., & Xu, X. R., & Dukes, A. M. (2018, June), Board 94: A Conceptual Model for Engineering Major Choice Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30142

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Although initiatives and programs designed to broaden participation in academic institutions have generated many positive changes, the proportions of women, African American, Hispanic, and Native American students have not seen commensurate increases in engineering fields. Focusing on diversity at the discipline level has important implications for the design of effective department level programs and curricular interventions to promote participation and persistence of a broad range of students. This research study therefore applies a mixed methods approach to focus on a critical decision juncture—selection into an engineering major—to identify the prevailing patterns of engineering discipline composition.  This study focuses on why students choose to major in engineering as a function of student gender, race/ethnicity, academic experiences, institutional programs, and student future plans and goals.  Data comprise 39 individual student interviews, as well as over 20,000 student-level transcript data matriculating between 2001 and 2015 at a large Midwestern research university.  Using organizational demography (Wharton, 1992) and social cognitive theory of self-regulation (Bandura, 1991) as theoretical frameworks, regression analyses were applied to identify factors that influence student selection into and persistence in engineering majors, while thematic analysis/grounded theory were used to analyze the interview transcripts.  

Among the findings, students cite the following reasons for majoring in engineering: (1) parental influence, (2) high school teachers and programs, (3) college curriculum and programs, (4) professional/career-related aspirations, and (5) desires to help society. The authors synthesized the quantitative and qualitative findings to develop a conceptual model describing the process of major selection. Regression results show variation in likelihood of selecting certain engineering majors based on student demographic factors and first-year engineering GPA. Research findings provide important context and information for various potential applications to increase discipline-specific engineering diversity, such as developing new strategies/interventions to support success among underrepresented students, identifying overlooked areas in classroom environments, providing critical information for the development of surveys and larger-scale studies for investigating diversity across engineering. University administrators, faculty, and stakeholders could use these findings to help develop strategies to encourage more women and underrepresented students to pursue engineering and to consider more fully the wide range of engineering disciplines available.

AU  - Joyce B. Main
AU  - Xinrui (rose) Xu
AU  - Alexandra Marie Dukes
CY  - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA  - 2018/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 94: A Conceptual Model for Engineering Major Choice
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/30142
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--30142
ER  -