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

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。具体来说，该项目将重点关注大二学生，因为这是许多学生挣扎并可能离开化学工程专业的时候。通过在大二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成绩，项目团队将确定影响学生成绩和坚持化学工程的因素。该项目还将测试学生参加为期两天的自愿研讨会（“ChemE Camp”）——包括团队建设练习、实验室参观、动手项目、关于即将到来的课程和课程的演讲，以及与高年级学生和教师的互动——是否能影响这些因素，并最终提高学生在化学工程方面的成绩和持久性。虽然是为化学工程设计的，但本研究中涉及的方法和车间的设计具有适应性，可以很容易地为其他学科量身定制。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，以提高学生的保留率，从而增加工程专业毕业生进入劳动力市场的数量。化学工程专业的大量人员流失发生在大二，那时学生们刚开始学习专业相关课程。为了解决这一问题，本项目将探讨自我效能感的社会认知职业理论构念和情境影响（特别是社会支持）对化工专业二年级学生的成就和坚持的影响。在大二开始和结束时对学生进行的调查将使用已出版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，社会和学术整合水平以及坚持的意图。本研究将结合二年级化学工程课程的学业成绩数据，检验自我效能感、社会支持因素与学业成绩、坚持性结果的关系。此外，本研究将测试干预对学生自我效能感和社会支持的影响。干预是一个为期两天的自愿研讨会（“ChemE Camp”），在大二开始之前提供给学生。工作坊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和其他入门STEM课程中已经得到了证实，但这些因素对后来的课程的影响却很少受到关注。鉴于早期专业障碍课程的高流失率，针对大二学生的研究值得进一步研究。这个二年级学生群体是一个合理的下一个机会，可以提高整体学生留存率，并为劳动力队伍培养专业的工程师。由于研讨会活动基于广泛的主题（团队建设，与高年级学生的融合，与教师的非正式互动等），因此可以很容易地为其他STEM学科和其他机构创建类似的研讨会。这项研究的结果将通过相关期刊的出版物和美国工程教育学会年会上的演讲传播给工程教育界，并通过制作简短的视频来描述营地的观察到的好处，以及如何在其他机构创建和调整类似营地的说明，传播给更大的实践者群体。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.