Pre-Collegiate Factors Influencing the Self-Efficacy of Engineering Students

摘要

Background Many engineering colleges have the goal of increasing the quality and number of students choosing to pursue engineering and therefore are heavily invested in programs that expose pre-collegiate students to engineering. Most commonly, these institutions are involved with summer outreach programs and weekend or fieldtrip opportunities for students to visit engineering campuses, and some curriculum development. A lesser, often untapped resource for engineering colleges is through K-12 technology and pre-engineering teacher training. Purpose (Hypothesis) This study addresses the long term effects of pre-collegiate engineering experiences on student self-efficacy. It is hypothesized that the greater the rigor of a pre-colligate experience, the more it will contribute to a student's self-efficacy related to engineering studies. The pre-collegiate experiences examined in this study include pre-engineering classes, multi-day programs, engineering hobbies, working in an engineering environment, extra-curricular engineering programs, and single-day field trips. Design/Method The long term effects of pre-collegiate experiences were evaluated by comparing the self-efficacy of first-year students who had the experiences to first-year students who did not have the experiences. Results Significant differences in self-efficacy were only found between groups of students who had pre-engineering classes and engineering hobbies versus students who did not have these experiences. Conclusions Based on the findings, engineering colleges with the goal of increasing the self-efficacy of engineering students should consider focusing resources on developing K-12 technology and pre-engineering teachers. Additional recommendations for practice, pedagogical implications, and areas for further research are offered.