Engineering State of Mind Instrument: A tool for Self-Assessment

Abstract

Students in their first and second year in an engineering major often experience an internal struggle. They wonder if they are meant to be an engineer and if they will be successful in their program, even if they are in good academic standing. Sometimes students seek advice from an advisor, peer, or mentor, and often they do nothing at all. This has shown to unfortunately cause students to switch or leave the STEM field all together. To contribute to improving retention and increase the likelihood of success for students in engineering programs, an instrument was developed that would allow students to self-assess their ?Engineering State of Mind,? and then provide them with intervention recommendations based on their assessment. This Engineering State of Mind Instrument (ESMI) was developed from validated surveys and includes a student'sattitudes, perceptions, and self-efficacy toward engineering. The Social Cognitive Career theory was used as the framework in the development of the ESMI. To assess the instrument, juniors and seniors, and freshmen in the college'sfirst year engineering course (Engineering 101 with ~280 students) were evaluated. Engineering 101 is a required course and exposes the students to all of the engineering disciplines offered at UMBC (mechanical, computer, and chemical engineering). To assess the impact of the instrument, discussion sections in Engineering 101 were divided into four experimental groups, each receiving a different treatment to compare potential effects of the ESMI and subsequent interventions. Students who received the ESMI at the beginning and end of the semester and had interventions, displayed improvement in all variables. The students who didn?t participate in the ESMI at the beginning or have interventions showed some or no improvement at all. These results were consistent across gender, ethnicity, and/or program affiliations. A follow-up impact survey supported these results, reiterating the benefit from and need for an engineering self-assessing instrument.