Assessing Gender Differences in First-Year Student Motivation

For the past decade, engineering schools have developed a variety of models for introducing first-year students to their chosen field. These range from surveys of engineering disciplines and introductions to problem solving and algorithmic thinking, to design and professional skills in project-based learning courses. Such courses have greatly enhanced the participants’ early understanding of the engineering field, improving student understanding of the field and allowing students to make better choices of disciplines and, consequently, increasing their satisfaction with their engineering education. Despite the growth of design projects in first-year engineering courses, little research to date examines the effect of such courses on student motivation. Broad studies of retention in engineering education show promising results for women and other under-represented students in project-based courses; however, engineering educators need a richer understanding of how specific project-oriented pedagogies affect students’, and in particular women’s, motivations for engineering and their intended career plans. This study focuses on women because of their continued underrepresentation in engineering 4 and the need to ensure effective retention efforts in the midst of a movement to enact large-scale curricular transformation in engineering. To address this need, this study investigated student motivational level (based on the expectancyvalue theory of academic achievement) as well as intentions to persist of male and female first year engineering students at a large midwestern university at three time points: as students entered their first semester (n=323; 107 female and 215 male), after completing the first semester (n=191; 70 female and 121 male), and after completing the first academic year (n=133; 52 female and 81 male.). An online survey, updated from another study, investigated six motivational constructs using Likert-style questions: interest in engineering, perceived usefulness of engineering, identity with engineering, sense of belonging in engineering, expectancy of success in an engineering program, and sense of worth of obtaining an engineering degree. Additionally, students were surveyed as to their intentions to persist in the engineering program and to pursue a career related to their engineering degree. A confirmatory factor analysis coupled with internal reliability measures suggested that the factors were constructed appropriately for this application of the survey. Consistent with previous research, female students entered the university with significantly lower ratings of expectancy of success in engineering coursework than male students. However, their expectancy of success increased over the first year, such that female students were statistically indistinguishable from male students by the end of the first year. In addition, women exhibited a slightly lower (marginally significant) sense of belonging in engineering than men upon entering university study. Interestingly, there were very few significant differences between the successive surveys. In addition to women showing a marginally significant increase in expectancy for success over the first year, men exhibited a marginally significant decrease in their sense that an engineering degree is worth the cost. These results contribute to an already complex set of findings on gender and motivation in engineering undergraduate studies, and an analysis of the underlying antecedents is warranted. P ge 23210.2 Introduction and Background For the past decade, engineering schools have developed a variety of approaches to introducing first-year students to their chosen field. These range from courses that survey a variety of engineering disciplines, to courses that introduce problem solving and algorithmic thinking, to courses that emphasize design and professional skills in the context of project-based learning. Such courses have enhanced students’ early understanding of the engineering field, helping them to make better choices of disciplines and, consequently, increased student satisfaction with their engineering education. Despite the growth of design projects in first-year engineering courses (courses that give students a hands-on design experience early on, instead of first putting them through a series of required theory courses), little research to date has examined the effect of such courses on student motivation. Broad studies of retention do show promising results for women and other underrepresented students in project-based courses. Still, engineering educators need a richer understanding of how specific project-oriented pedagogies affect students’, and particularly women’s, motivations for choosing engineering and for subsequently persevering in the pursuit of their intended career plans. This study focuses on gender because of the continued underrepresentation of women in engineering 4 and the need to ensure effective retention efforts. Enrollment trends in engineering schools in the US show increased numbers of students entering the engineering field over the past decade. Enrollment of female students has been rising, reaching 18.6 percent in 2010; however, women remain highly under-represented in the field. At the university where this research was conducted, enrollment of female students has been relatively high, reaching its peak at just over 30 percent in 2002, but has recently declined despite increasing national trends, settling at about 23 percent. Retention rates for male and female engineering students are comparable at this institution. A better understanding of what motivates students can allow the program to better address students’ needs in the first year. To investigate this issue, we surveyed engineering students about their motivation and plans for remaining in the engineering major and profession before, during and after the first semester of their engineering undergraduate studies. About half of the students surveyed took a required team project-based learning course, “Introduction to Engineering,” which makes use of team-based experiential learning centered on the engineering design process. The other students enrolled in an introductory programming course. A comparison of student motivation levels before and after this initial semester enables us to draw inferences regarding the relative motivational effects of the two courses and, specifically, to determine whether the project-based course supports the persistence of women in engineering, as has been reported for other, similar courses. The study was undertaken with dual purposes. It is expected that findings from this study will contribute to a better understanding of student motivation over the first semester of engineering study, and perhaps how both gender and course experiences may be related to motivational changes. The study is also intended as a program evaluation. P ge 23210.3 Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework for this study is a combination of Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) of Achievement and its interaction with student persistence in the field of engineering. Expectancy-value theory, as applied to achievement 9, , focuses on social, psychological, and cognitive reasons for choices, particularly in academic settings. Simply put, the model suggests that academic motivation is influenced by perceived competence beliefs (“Can I do this task?”) and beliefs about the worth of the task (“is this task useful/interesting/etc?”). The model predicts that student motivation for engineering is influenced by both students’ expectancy for success and their values. Figure 1 illustrates the general framework (A) as well as this study’s interpretation of the EVT applied to student motivation for engineering (B). Figure 1. Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation: general framework (A) and applied to this particular project context (B). Modified from Finelli and Daly (2012). Research by the originators of the model using factor analysis has suggested that all of the constructs regarding expectancy and value are related (significantly correlated) but distinct. Research has confirmed the importance of both the expectancy-related perspectives 14 and the value-related perspectives in academic motivation and decision-making. Eccles, via expectancy-value theory, suggests that women are less likely to enter and persist in field related to math and physical sciences (e.g. engineering) both because they lack confidence in their abilities in this domain and because they place less value on these fields than other fields. This is evidenced through statistics showing the number of women enrolling in engineering programs. For example, of the 69,895 students who earned an undergraduate engineering degree in 2008, only 12,918 (18.48%) were women. Attrition rates for female and male students are typically similar , but a multi-pronged approach to increasing female involvement in engineering may be necessary to increase initial female enrollment as well as increase female persistence and overcome the gap women experience in their expectancy for success and valuerelated constructs relative to the engineering disciplines. Page 23210.4 In alignment with EVT in the context of educational and occupational choices, numerous studies have found expectancy to be different for male and female students. In multiple contexts, male students have reported higher expectancies for success , including among undergraduate engineering students 22 and practicing engineers. Research Questions and Study Methods This study investigated the following research questions with respect to first-year engineering students: 1. Do entering male and female engineering students at this institution differ in their engineering expectancy-related beliefs, value-related beliefs, or career/major plans, or in how those characteristics change over the course of their first semester/year in a university engineer