Research Initiation: Influence of self-efficacy and social support on persistence and achievement in chemical engineering sophomores

研究发起：自我效能和社会支持对化学工程二年级学生坚持和成就的影响

• 批准号: 2025035
• 负责人: Bradley Cicciarelli
• 金额: $ 18.05万
• 依托单位: Louisiana Tech University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2025035&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Influence; self; efficacy

This research initiation project will help students more successfully navigate the challenging chemical engineering curriculum. Specifically, the project will focus on the sophomore year since this is when many students struggle and potentially leave chemical engineering programs. By administering surveys to students at the beginning and end of their sophomore year and tracking their academic performance in courses, the project team will determine the factors that influence student achievement and persistence in chemical engineering. This project will also test whether student participation in a 2-day voluntary workshop (“ChemE Camp”) - which includes team-building exercises, lab tours, a hands-on project, presentations about upcoming courses and the curriculum, and interactions with upper-level students and faculty - can impact these factors and ultimately improve student achievement and persistence in chemical engineering. Though designed for chemical engineering, the methods involved in this study and the design of the workshop are adaptable and could easily be tailored to other disciplines. Likewise, these findings can be applied more broadly to other disciplines in science and engineering to improve student retention, leading to an increase in the number of engineering graduates entering the workforce. Much of the significant attrition from chemical engineering programs occurs in the sophomore year when students first begin to take major-specific courses. To address this issue, this project will explore the impact of the Social Cognitive Career Theory constructs of self-efficacy and contextual influences (specifically, social support) on the achievement and persistence of chemical engineering sophomores. Surveys given to students at the beginning and end of their sophomore year will use scales from published instruments to assess students' chemical engineering self-efficacy, coping self-efficacy, level of social and academic integration, and intent to persist. These results will be combined with academic performance data for sophomore-level chemical engineering courses to test the relationships between the factors of self-efficacy and social support and the outcomes of academic performance and persistence. Additionally, the effects of an intervention on students' self-efficacy and social support will be tested. The intervention is a voluntary two-day workshop ("ChemE Camp") offered to students just prior to the start of the sophomore year. The workshop includes activities expected to increase students' self-efficacy and social support. The effects of these factors on student achievement and persistence are well-established in first-year engineering and other introductory STEM courses, but the impact of these factors on later courses has received much less attention. Given the high levels of attrition in early major-specific barrier courses, studies specific to sophomore students are worthy of further investigation. This sophomore student cohort is a logical next opportunity for improving overall student retention and the professional formation of engineers for the workforce. Since the workshop activities are based on broad themes (team-building, integration with upper-level students, informal interaction with faculty, etc.), they could easily be adapted to create similar workshops for other STEM disciplines and at other institutions. The results of this study will be disseminated to the engineering education community via publications in relevant journals and presentations at the American Society for Engineering Education annual conference, and to the larger body of practitioners via the creation of short videos describing the observed benefits of the camp and instructions on how to create and adapt a similar camp at other institutions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个研究启动项目将帮助学生更成功地驾驭具有挑战性的化学工程课程。具体地说，该项目将重点放在大二，因为这是许多学生挣扎的时候，可能会离开化学工程专业。通过在二年级开始和结束时对学生进行调查，并跟踪他们在课程中的学习表现，项目团队将确定影响学生在化学工程方面取得成绩和坚持不懈的因素。该项目还将测试学生参加为期两天的自愿研讨会(“ChemE Camp”)是否能够影响这些因素，并最终提高学生在化学工程方面的成绩和毅力。虽然是为化学工程而设计的，但本研究所涉及的方法和车间的设计具有很强的适应性，很容易为其他学科量身定做。同样，这些发现可以更广泛地应用于科学和工程的其他学科，以提高学生的留存率，从而增加进入劳动力大军的工程学毕业生的数量。化学工程专业的大量人员流失发生在大二，当时学生们第一次开始学习特定专业的课程。为了解决这一问题，本项目将探索社会认知职业理论的自我效能感和背景影响(特别是社会支持)对化学工程专业二年级学生成就和坚持性的影响。在二年级开始和结束时对学生进行的调查将使用发表的工具中的量表来评估学生的化学工程自我效能感、应对自我效能感、社会和学术融合水平以及坚持的意图。这些结果将与大二化学工程课程的学业成绩数据相结合，检验自我效能感和社会支持因素与学业成绩和坚持性之间的关系。此外，还将测试干预对学生自我效能感和社会支持的影响。这是一个自愿参加的为期两天的研讨会(“化学训练营”)，在大学二年级开始前为学生提供。研讨会包括旨在提高学生自我效能感和社会支持的活动。这些因素对学生成绩和毅力的影响在第一年的工程学和其他STEM入门课程中已经得到了充分的证实，但这些因素对以后课程的影响却受到了很少的关注。鉴于早期特定专业障碍课程的高磨损率，针对大二学生的研究值得进一步调查。这批大二学生是提高整体留学生和为劳动力培养专业工程师的下一个合乎逻辑的机会。由于讲习班活动以广泛的主题(团队建设、与高层学生的融合、与教员的非正式互动等)为基础，因此可以很容易地对其进行调整，以便为其他STEM学科和其他机构举办类似的讲习班。这项研究的结果将通过相关期刊上的出版物和美国工程教育协会年会上的演示文稿向工程教育界传播，并通过制作描述夏令营观察到的好处的短片和关于如何在其他机构创建和改造类似夏令营的说明来传播给更多的从业者。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

From Assessment to Research: Evolution of the Study of a Two-Day Intervention for ChemE Sophomores

从评估到研究：化学工程二年级学生两天干预研究的演变

• DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34692
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: ASEE Conferences
• 作者: Cicciarelli, Bradley;Sherer, Eric;Martin, Baker;Orr, Marisa
• 通讯作者: Orr, Marisa

NSF RIEF: Influence of Self-Efficacy and Social Support on Persistence and Achievement in Chemical Engineering Sophomores: Measuring the Impact of an Intervention

NSF RIEF：自我效能和社会支持对化学工程二年级学生的坚持和成就的影响：衡量干预的影响

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
• 作者: Cicciarelli, Bradley A.;Sherer, Eric A.;Reeves, Timothy C.;Belk, Catherine H.;Orr, Marisa K.
• 通讯作者: Orr, Marisa K.

Effects of an Intervention on Student Self-Efficacy and Integration in Chemical Engineering Sophomores

干预对化学工程二年级学生自我效能感和整合的影响

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: ASEE Annual Conference proceedings
• 作者: Cicciarelli, Bradley A.;Sherer, Eric A.;Reeves, Timothy C.;Belk, Catherine H.;Orr, Marisa K.
• 通讯作者: Orr, Marisa K.

Work in Progress: Identifying Success Factors for Chemical Engineering Sophomores and Testing the Effects of an Intervention

正在进行的工作：确定化学工程二年级学生的成功因素并测试干预的效果

• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference
• 作者: Cicciarelli, Bradley A.;Sherer, Eric A.;Orr, Marisa K.
• 通讯作者: Orr, Marisa K.