Value and Interest: Do They Really Make a Difference in Student Engagement

Cory Lam; Denise Wilson

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Technical Session 14
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48253

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Paper Authors

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Cory Lam University of Washington

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Cory Lam is a graduate student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle.

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Denise Wilson University of Washington orcid.org/0000-0002-2367-8602

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Denise Wilson is a professor and associate chair of diversity, equity, and inclusion in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests in engineering education focus on the role of self-efficacy, belonging, and instructional support on engagement and motivation in the classroom while her engineering workplace research focuses on the role of relatedness, autonomy, and competence needs on persistence and fulfillment.

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Abstract

This study aims to better understand how the intrinsic and utility value which individual students place on their engineering education influences their classroom engagement. Expectancy-value theory is used to conceptually frame how these two values as well as self-efficacy (a measure of expectancy) predict cognitive engagement as measured by effort. Survey data (n=1,837) from a single large public institution obtained from both in-person (prior to and following the COVID-19 pandemic) and remote (during the pandemic) learning settings in mechanical and electrical and computer engineering have been analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). HLM accounts for potential nesting (variation) within the forty-three courses from which data was collected for this study. Student demographics including gender, race, ethnicity, family income, as well as international and first-generation status were also included in the HLM models as control variables as were the students’ initial desire to study engineering and their intrinsic interests. Consistent with expectancy-value theory, expectancy (measured by self-efficacy) and value (as measured by intrinsic and utility value) positively and significantly predicted cognitive engagement for all settings. Incoming interest in studying engineering was shown to have positive and significant associations to self-efficacy across the different time periods, but only during remote learning settings for value. Previous academic achievements as measured by overall GPA were shown to be consistent with existing literature in positively and significantly predicting self-efficacy. However, intrinsic interests had inconsistent associations and significance across time periods with both self-efficacy and value. Finally, race, gender, U.S. status, and economic background also played a role in determining self-efficacy and value, but not all demographics were uniformly linked to self-efficacy and value across the different time periods studied. While this study adds additional empirical evidence to support the validity of expectancy value theory, it also reinforces the importance of evolving teaching practices to better accommodate how engineering students’ background, goals, intrinsic interests, self-efficacy, and value impact engagement in classroom and laboratory work.

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Format

Lam, C., & Wilson, D. (2024, June), Value and Interest: Do They Really Make a Difference in Student Engagement Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48253

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This study aims to better understand how the intrinsic and utility value which individual students place on their engineering education influences their classroom engagement. Expectancy-value theory is used to conceptually frame how these two values as well as self-efficacy (a measure of expectancy) predict cognitive engagement as measured by effort. Survey data (n=1,837) from a single large public institution obtained from both in-person (prior to and following the COVID-19 pandemic) and remote (during the pandemic) learning settings in mechanical and electrical and computer engineering have been analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). HLM accounts for potential nesting (variation) within the forty-three courses from which data was collected for this study. Student demographics including gender, race, ethnicity, family income, as well as international and first-generation status were also included in the HLM models as control variables as were the students’ initial desire to study engineering and their intrinsic interests. Consistent with expectancy-value theory, expectancy (measured by self-efficacy) and value (as measured by intrinsic and utility value) positively and significantly predicted cognitive engagement for all settings. Incoming interest in studying engineering was shown to have positive and significant associations to self-efficacy across the different time periods, but only during remote learning settings for value. Previous academic achievements as measured by overall GPA were shown to be consistent with existing literature in positively and significantly predicting self-efficacy. However, intrinsic interests had inconsistent associations and significance across time periods with both self-efficacy and value. Finally, race, gender, U.S. status, and economic background also played a role in determining self-efficacy and value, but not all demographics were uniformly linked to self-efficacy and value across the different time periods studied. While this study adds additional empirical evidence to support the validity of expectancy value theory, it also reinforces the importance of evolving teaching practices to better accommodate how engineering students’ background, goals, intrinsic interests, self-efficacy, and value impact engagement in classroom and laboratory work.
AU  - Cory Lam
AU  - Denise Wilson
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Value and Interest: Do They Really Make a Difference in Student Engagement
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/48253
ER  -