This research paper investigates the ways first-year engineering students develop their identity. Research on first-year students suggests the first semester plays a major role in student retention, particularly in fields such as engineering, as many students know whether or not they will continue studying engineering by the end of the fall semester and few students transfer into engineering after the first year.1 Motivational psychologists such as Deci (1995) have argued that autonomy is essential to student identity development, as well as lifelong learning. In this study researchers investigated how first-year students spent six hours of free time as part of a first year, first semester course at a small engineering college. The instructor designed these six hours to encourage student identity development in a self-directed learning environment. Students were told that they would not have class during the final two weeks of the semester but instead were required to sign-up for ‘mini-classes’ that focused on activities of their own interest. Students selected activities from a wide range of examples (speakers, workshops, seminars, tutorials) and were asked to record the activities they completed. These data were collected over the course of four years. In order to understand the areas of development engineering students prioritized, these data were analyzed within the framework of Chickering's seven vectors of student development and Deci and Ryan's self determination theory of motivational psychology. Mini-classes were categorized using Chickering's seven vectors: Developing competence, managing emotions, moving through autonomy toward interdependence, developing mature interpersonal relationships, establishing identity, developing purpose, and developing integrity. A quantitative analysis explored differences between data sets (class year), the different vectors, and the role of gender. The researchers found Chickering and Reisser's theory to be a practical lens through which one can understand different vectors of student development, as engineering students in the study choose a variety of activities to pursue with their free-time. The research team found student development in the first year to be complex and involved many different areas of growth. The researchers did find however that the students in the study were highly focused on activities that developed specific engineering skills and competencies. Students actively choose to develop their sense of engineering identity. They spent significantly less time developing ‘soft skills’ such as managing emotions and interpersonal relationships. Additionally, the researchers found statistically significant differences in the kinds of activities that men and women pursued, which aligned with themes within the literature on gender differences between men and women.
展开▼
