From a Mentor’s Perspective: Discovering Factors that Foster Achievement Motivation in Engineering

Garam Lee; John Keane; Goun Choi; S. Patrick Walton; Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia; Alexandra Lee

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Educational Research and Methods (ERM) Division Poster Session
Page Count: 20
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40777
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40777
Download Count: 200

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Paper Authors

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Alexandra Lee

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I am a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education at Michigan State University (MSU). I am broadly interested in how students’ motivational beliefs develop as a function of their unique experiences, and in turn, how these beliefs affect their achievement and career choices. To understand these processes, I use a variety of quantitative methods (growth mixture modeling, latent profile analysis, social network analysis, meta-analysis) and qualitative methods (case study) to examine the interplay of students’ situations with their unique motivational beliefs and the role of strategically designing educational experiences to promote greater equity and achievement.

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S. Patrick Walton is the Associate Chairperson and C. Robert and Kathryn M. Weir Endowed Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University. He received his bachelors degree in chemical engineering from Georgia Tech, and then attended MIT where he received his masters and doctoral degrees. After a post-doc at Stanford University, he joined MSU in 2004 where his research is focused on the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic technologies based upon the unique physical and chemical properties of nucleic acids. He is also engaged in studying engineering student persistence and success through the lens of motivation. He has been recognized for his accomplishments in both teaching and research, receiving the MSU Teacher-Scholar award, the College of Engineering Withrow Teaching Excellence Award and being named an MSU Lilly Teaching Fellow and MSU's Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor of the Year.

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Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia Michigan State University

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Abstract

This work-in-progress study investigated how a faculty mentor seeks to support undergraduate engineering students’ achievement motivation, and in turn, their persistence in engineering. Faculty-student mentoring has been proposed as a potential solution to closing the “leaky pipeline” by promoting greater persistence and achievement in engineering, but there is limited understanding of how mentoring is enacted to support students’ motivation. Therefore, in this study, we used an integrated theoretical framework of achievement motivation that pulls from expectancy-value theory, achievement goal theory, and self-determination theory to investigate how a faculty mentor supports multiple forms of student motivation. We used a phenomenological approach to describe the mentor’s perspective of their role in, and the factors most important to, supporting engineering students’ achievement motivation by addressing the following research questions: 1) What does an engineering faculty mentor identify as the most important factors to engineering students’ achievement motivation? 2) How does the faculty mentor’s approach to supporting students’ achievement motivation differ depending on the unique challenges faced by engineering students? To answer these research questions, we used two data sources: the mentor’s notes from a series of meetings with three mentees over the course of three years and a semi-structured retrospective interview with the mentor. We used an iterative coding scheme that involved a priori coding based on a pre-existing theoretical framework, open coding to identify initial categories, and axial coding to reorganize codes into a hierarchy, reduce redundancy, and identify major themes. We found that the faculty mentor perceived that supporting students’ belonging and competence beliefs were the most important factors for their motivation in engineering. Our study also revealed that the faculty mentor tailored their mentoring in response to the unique challenges each student experienced. Finally, we observed that the mentor supported multiple forms of motivation aligned with an integrated theoretical framework. Keywords: mentoring, motivation, work-in-progress, persistence

Citation
Format

Lee, A., & Lee, G., & Keane, J., & Choi, G., & Walton, S. P., & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (2022, August), From a Mentor’s Perspective: Discovering Factors that Foster Achievement Motivation in Engineering Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40777

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This work-in-progress study investigated how a faculty mentor seeks to support undergraduate engineering students’ achievement motivation, and in turn, their persistence in engineering. Faculty-student mentoring has been proposed as a potential solution to closing the “leaky pipeline” by promoting greater persistence and achievement in engineering, but there is limited understanding of how mentoring is enacted to support students’ motivation. Therefore, in this study, we used an integrated theoretical framework of achievement motivation that pulls from expectancy-value theory, achievement goal theory, and self-determination theory to investigate how a faculty mentor supports multiple forms of student motivation. We used a phenomenological approach to describe the mentor’s perspective of their role in, and the factors most important to, supporting engineering students’ achievement motivation by addressing the following research questions: 1) What does an engineering faculty mentor identify as the most important factors to engineering students’ achievement motivation? 2) How does the faculty mentor’s approach to supporting students’ achievement motivation differ depending on the unique challenges faced by engineering students? To answer these research questions, we used two data sources: the mentor’s notes from a series of meetings with three mentees over the course of three years and a semi-structured retrospective interview with the mentor. We used an iterative coding scheme that involved a priori coding based on a pre-existing theoretical framework, open coding to identify initial categories, and axial coding to reorganize codes into a hierarchy, reduce redundancy, and identify major themes. We found that the faculty mentor perceived that supporting students’ belonging and competence beliefs were the most important factors for their motivation in engineering. Our study also revealed that the faculty mentor tailored their mentoring in response to the unique challenges each student experienced. Finally, we observed that the mentor supported multiple forms of motivation aligned with an integrated theoretical framework.    
Keywords: mentoring, motivation, work-in-progress, persistence
AU  - Alexandra Lee
AU  - Garam Lee
AU  - John Keane
AU  - Goun Choi
AU  - S. Patrick Walton
AU  - Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - From a Mentor’s Perspective: Discovering Factors that Foster Achievement Motivation in Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40777
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40777
ER  -