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Intervention to Improve Engineering Self-Efficacy and Sense of Belonging of First-Year Engineering Students

Jordan, Kari L
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388411864

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, EDU Teaching and Learning.
The percentage of bachelor’s degrees in STEM awarded to women and underrepresented minority students needs to increase dramatically to reach parity with their majority counterparts. While three key underrepresented minority (URM) groups, African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, and Native Americans constitute some 30 percent of the overall undergraduate student population in the United States, the share of engineering degrees earned by members of these groups declines as degree level increases. Underrepresented minority students accounted for about 12% of engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2009, 7% of master’s degrees and 3% of doctorates (NSF Science Resource Statistics, 2009). The percent in engineering has been steadily decreasing, while overall participation in higher education among these groups has increased considerably. Keeping those thoughts in mind it is important to examine the historical theories and frameworks that will help us not only understand why underrepresented minority students pursue and persist in STEM majors in low numbers, but to also develop interventions to improve the alarming statistics that hamper engineering diversity. As indicated by our past two U.S. Presidents, there has been an increased discussion on the national and state level regarding the number of students entering engineering disciplines in general and underrepresented minority students in particular. Something happens between a student’s freshman year and the point they decide to either switch their major or drop out of school altogether. Some researchers attribute the high dropout rate of underrepresented minority students in engineering programs to low engineering self-efficacy (e.g. Jordan et al., 2011). A student’s engineering self-efficacy is his/her belief that he/she can successfully navigate the engineering curriculum and eventually become a practicing engineer. A student’s engineering self-efficacy is formed by mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, his/her physiological state, and social persuasions, such as student-professor interaction. Increasing the awareness of a student’s engineering self-efficacy could potentially improve sense of belonging and persistence for underrepresented minority students in engineering. The hypothesis of this study is that an intervention during the first semester of an incoming freshman’s tenure can help improve their engineering self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and overall retention in the engineering program. This study explored the following research questions: 1. What are the differences in engineering self-efficacy, and sense of belonging for first-year underrepresented minority engineering students compared to majority students? 2. What factors or variables should be considered and/or addressed in designing an intervention to increase engineering self-efficacy and sense of belonging amongst first-year underrepresented minority engineering students? 3. Can a small intervention during the beginning of the first semester improve a student’s sense of belonging, engineering self-efficacy, and student-professor interaction? Using the race, social fit, and achievement study by Walton and Cohen as a model, the author developed an intervention consisting of short compelling videos of upperclass engineering students from diverse backgrounds. In these videos, students discussed their pursuit of the engineering degree, what obstacles they faced in terms of sense of belonging and coping efficacy, and how they overcame those obstacles. Treatment groups of students watched the videos during the first few weeks of the semester, and pre and post tests were administered to measure mean gains in the student’s engineering self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and other variables. The results showed that underrepresented minority students had a lower sense of belonging than whites. The intervention used in the study contributed to mean gain increases in participants’ engineering self-efficacy, which could ultimately improve persistence. A single intervention did not show a significant increase in students’ sense of belonging; more work needs to be done to develop an effective intervention. The intervention is easily adaptable with insignificant cost, making it attractive for Minority Engineering Program (MEP) and other success program whose aim is to increase students’ engineering self-efficacy.
Paul Post (Advisor)
Lin Ding (Committee Member)
Robert Gustafson (Committee Chair)
92 p.
Education; Engineering
Engineering Self-Efficacy; Persistence; Underrepresented minority

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Citations

  • Jordan, K. L. (2014). Intervention to Improve Engineering Self-Efficacy and Sense of Belonging of First-Year Engineering Students [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388411864

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Jordan, Kari. Intervention to Improve Engineering Self-Efficacy and Sense of Belonging of First-Year Engineering Students . 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388411864.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Jordan, Kari. "Intervention to Improve Engineering Self-Efficacy and Sense of Belonging of First-Year Engineering Students ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388411864

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1388411864
734
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.