Outcomes of a Longitudinal Administration of the Persistence in Engineering Survey (original) (raw)
Related papers
2007
This paper outlines the preliminary findings of a longitudinal survey-based study, the Persistence in Engineering (PIE) survey. This survey was designed to identify and characterize the fundamental factors that influence students' intentions to pursue an engineering degree over the course of their undergraduate career, and upon graduation, to pursue a career in an engineeringrelated field, including practicing engineering as a profession, teaching, or conducting research. In addition, it is also designed to broaden our understanding of how students navigate their education and begin to form identities as engineers.
An Examination of Indicators of Engineering Students' Success and Persistence
Journal of Engineering Education, 2005
Student success and persistence within the major and university were examined through hierarchical linear and logistic regression analyses for two cohorts of engineering students. Indicators of success and persistence were based on theoretical and empirical evidence and included both cognitive and noncognitive variables. Cognitive variables included high school rank, SAT scores, and university cumulative grade point average. Noncognitive factors included academic motivation and institutional integration. Outcome variables included grade point average, enrollment at the university, and status as an engineering major. Gender differences also were evaluated. Several significant relationships among the variables were found. For instance, increased levels of motivation were significantly related to continuing in the major. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Persistence, Engagement, and Migration in Engineering Programs
Journal of Engineering Education, 2008
Those responsible for designing, maintaining, and delivering engineering education are asking questions to understand the outcomes of undergraduate engineering programs. These questions have been motivated by concerns about the declining interest in studying engineering, the continued lack of gender and ethnic diversity in the engineering population in education and practice, and the effectiveness of programs in preparing engineering graduates to take on today's engineering challenges.
A structural model of engineering students success and persistence
33rd Annual Frontiers in Education, 2003. FIE 2003.
Noncognitive factors included motivation, as well as faculty and student integration. Outcome variables in the model were grade point average, enrollment at the university, as well as within engineering. Through the use of path analysis, several significant relationships among the factors were found. For instance, grade point average was significantly related to enrollment in both the university and engineering major. Increased levels of student interactions were significantly related to continued enrollment in engineering. Interestingly, student with higher faculty integration were more likely to change majors. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2014
We examined the temporal relations within Lent et al.'s (2013) integrative SCCT model of academic satisfaction and intended persistence in a sample of 551 engineering undergraduates from a Hispanic serving institution. They completed measures of instrumentality, support, selfefficacy, outcome expectations, interests, academic satisfaction, and intended persistence at two time points approximately 12 months apart. Using longitudinal cross-panel design, the findings supported a model where: (a) instrumentality predicted self-efficacy, (b) self-efficacy was a temporal precursor for both interests and academic satisfaction, (c) support was a temporal precursor for outcome expectations, while also predicting academic satisfaction, (d) academic satisfaction and intended persistence had a reciprocal relation with one another, and (e) relations in the model did not differ by gender or race/ethnicity. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
Retention of engineering students is a much-studied subject. The bulk of existing literature focuses on students in large, Research-I institutions – arguably schools sharing a common context or educational dynamic. Current instruments available to study retention have not focused on how motivations, interests, and individual backgrounds (psychosocial and personal attributes) may vary with educational context (institutional attributes) and, as a result, may very well miss aspects of a student’s learning experience that could be particularly important to retention. Studies from both engineering education and social sciences such as educational psychology fail to fully examine how the educational environment interacts with personal experiences and attributes among engineering students to influence retention among all students; of particular interest is retention of females, since this population of engineering students has consistently reflected higher attrition from the field of study. The role of context in the development of instruments for retention studies needs to be studied more thoroughly. For this work, we are developing a new survey instrument to explore the effects of context on engineering retention; this article describes the pilot test of the instrument. Seven factors related to retention, as reported in engineering education, science education, and educational psychology literature, were identified as relevant to measuring educational context and therefore selected for study: 1) Cultural influences, including family and friends 2) Recruitment activities to engineering, as experienced before entering college 3) Participation in engineering-related activities 4) Self-perception and self-efficacy 5) Motivations for studying engineering 6) Definitions of success, personally and academically 7) Perceptions of the learning environment. For each factor, a set of Likert scale survey stems was developed. In addition, demographic data were included. The stems were reviewed by an expert panel in accordance with best practice in the field of educational psychology, and the resulting instrument was pilot-tested with 224 engineering undergraduates. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used for validation purposes. Future work will involve quantitative-analysis-driven modification of the instrument, followed by administration at multiple institutions with varying contexts and comparisons to further explore the role of context in engineering retention. We will add a qualitative research component to enrich our understanding of the role of context in student decision-making associated with undergraduate engineering program retention.
Academic performance and persistence of on- and off- campus engineering and technology students
2003
A study of more than 9000 unit enrolments in an Australian engineering program found that: the off-campus withdrawal rate was close to twice that for on-campus students; whether a student withdrew or not was highly correlated to mode of study; the rate of withdrawal was significantly different between the two student groups; the grade distribution for completing students was significantly different between the two groups; the mean final grade was significantly higher for off-campus students; the failure rate for off-campus students was significantly lower; and the overall wastage rate (withdrawn rate plus fail rate) was significantly higher for off-campus students.
Understanding Student Retention in Engineering
2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings
While her doctorate is in Curriculum and Instruction, focusing on higher education teaching of STEM fields, she also holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in Mathematics. Dr. Hensel has over seven years of experience working in engineering teams and in project management and administration as a Mathematician and Computer Systems Analyst for the U. S. Department of Energy as well as more than 25 years of experience teaching mathematics, statistics, computer science, and first-year engineering courses in higher education institutions. Currently, she leads a team of faculty who are dedicated to providing first year engineering students with a highquality, challenging, and engaging educational experience with the necessary advising, mentoring, and academic support to facilitate their transition to university life and to prepare them for success in their engineering discipline majors and future careers.