Intersecting Self-Efficacy and Interest: Exploring the Impact of Soft Robot Design Experiences on Engineering Perceptions

This evidence-based practice paper analyzes student engineering self-efficacy and interest following a 9-grade curriculum intervention which introduced soft robot design to the classroom. Achievement motivation theories often hold that the intersection of self-efficacy and task interest are predictive of choices and behavior. By leveraging domain-specific measurements for self-efficacy and interest, we focus on engineering self-efficacy and engineering career interest to inform the development of the curriculum experience. First, an overview of the curriculum highlights elements which theoretically support self-efficacy or career interest. Next, participating students’ trajectories for self-efficacy and interest are mapped to investigate potential growth following the lessons. Most students did not change their level of interest or self-efficacy after the lessons, and we observed mixed results among those that did: some students increased and a similar number decreased in engineering perceptions. We examine the number of students with changing self-efficacy and interest and draw conclusions about curriculum revisions.