Baltimore , Maryland
June 25, 2023
June 25, 2023
June 28, 2023
Student Division (STDT) Technical Session 1: Student Success and Mentoring
Student Division (STDT)
14
10.18260/1-2--44149
https://peer.asee.org/44149
724
Kathryn Christopher, or KC as most people call her, is a doctoral student at Western Michigan University. This is the perspective from which she authored her paper at this conference. However, she is also a faculty member teaching mostly first-year engineering courses at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI. Having this unique perspective as both student and faculty has focused KC's interests on equity in engineering education, universal design for learning, and improving first-year retention in engineering programs.
CJ Witherell is a graduate student studying Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering at Grand Valley State University. In both academic and industrial contexts, they have explored the Design Thinking methodology—specifically researching methods to improve the brainstorming and empathizing steps. As the 2022 Wisner Engineering Fellow, they are developing a new product for Gentex Corporation in Zeeland, Michigan.
Students who consistently set goals and reflect on the outcome of their efforts get the most out of their engineering education. Instead of solely focusing on the technical content of their courses, the most successful engineering students form habits that include evaluating their aspirations, performance, time management, commitment level, etc. Additionally, faculty who encourage these practices in their courses may see better student engagement and knowledge retention. Unfortunately, these skills rarely come naturally to students, and many do not get the chance to develop them before pursuing their undergraduate degree. Engineering courses should not only help students learn technical content but should also help them develop the skills of goal setting, expectation development, reflection, and self-assessment. This paper aims to address the following two research questions: 1) What are the effects of self-efficacy, goal setting, and reflection on undergraduate engineering students? 2) What would a practical model for implementing these strategies look like for students and faculty?
To do so, this paper reviews the available literature on self-efficacy, implicit beliefs (growth mindset), and resilience, describing their importance for engineering students. The authors also present a literature review of specific techniques that are useful in developing self-efficacy—goal setting and reflection. The paper then outlines a process students can use to enhance their personal goal setting and reflection techniques that could help improve comprehension of the technical content of their engineering courses. The authors offer suggestions for faculty, from a student perspective, on techniques and mindsets related to self-efficacy, goal setting, and reflection that they can incorporate into their classrooms to help with student engagement and knowledge retention.
Christopher, K., & Witherell, C., & Sarhan, A. G. (2023, June), Reflection and Goal Setting: Methods for Improved Performance and Engagement in Engineering Courses Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44149
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015