Research Initiation: Understanding the Relationships Between Gender, Self-Efficacy, and Extracurricular Activities in the Professional Formation of Engineers

该项目旨在扩大实践和组织属性的知识，可以利用这些知识来改变非正规教育机会影响工程师专业形成的方式。大学期间的课外体验活动对于工程专业学生的发展和早期职业工程专业人员的准备在工程师的专业形成中至关重要。 这些非正式的体验活动在塑造工程专业学生的自我效能感或感知能力水平方面发挥着重要作用，这是一种与个人学习和绩效成果相关的认知决定因素。 该项目的目标是阐明活动参与者的性别构成如何影响男性和女性自我效能的发展，并确定可用于减少不平等同时改善代表性不足人口的职业成果的活动属性。 这项研究将吸引来自罗切斯特理工学院（RIT）两个不同的汽车竞赛团队的现有团队成员和校友。 这两个团队有类似的业绩目标，但团队的性别组成、属性和做法非常不同。 了解妇女和其他代表性不足的人口如何发展为工程师是必不可少的建设一个创新和包容性的工程劳动力为21世纪世纪。该项目解决了与工程专业大学生的自我效能感和专业发展的研究问题，特别是：课外活动如何塑造学生的自我效能感在追求工程职业生涯？哪些因素，如情境支持，被认为对大学生效能感的发展至关重要？ 每个团队环境的实践和属性是什么，可以促进团队成员的工程和职业自我效能感？课外团队活动和自我效能如何影响学生融入工程工作场所？自我效能是一个既定的组成部分，在专业形成的工程师，因此，从拟议的研究结果可以帮助完善性别特定的理论，工程师如何发展。 将采用混合方法，涉及每个团队的现任成员和校友，以解决研究目标和研究问题，其中包括以下任务：（1）定量调查的管理;（2）与团队领导人的访谈;（3）与团队成员的访谈和焦点小组;以及（4）定性和定量研究结果的综合。 我们的研究结果将分析，性别和年龄，自我效能如何发展不同的男性和女性在非正式的设置，如体验课外活动。这项研究还将产生关于非正式环境中群体的做法和属性如何有助于提高自我效能的信息。 研究结果可用于提出有关最佳实践的建议，这些最佳实践可用于在工程领域留住更多样化的人口。 正在进行的形成性评估将包括项目外部咨询委员会的投入。预期成果可能会确定与课外体验活动，有助于提高自我效能的妇女在工程学科的属性和做法。 研究结果还将用于为K-12学生开发互动研讨会活动，重点是自我效能。 项目结果将通过项目和附属网站、会议和出版物传播。该奖项反映了NSF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 project aims to expand the knowledge of practices and organizational attributes that could be leveraged to change the ways in which informal education opportunities impact the professional formation of engineers. Extracurricular experiential activities during college are critical in the professional formation of engineers for both the development of engineering students and the preparation of early career engineering professionals. These informal experiential activities play a significant role in shaping engineering students' self-efficacy, or perceived level of competence, a cognitive determinant that has been linked to learning and performance outcomes for individuals. The goal of this project is to elucidate how gender composition of activity participants affects the development of self-efficacy in males and females and to identify the activity attributes that can be leveraged to reduce inequalities while improving career outcomes for underrepresented populations. The study will engage current team members and alumni from two distinct, automotive-based competition teams at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Both teams have similar performance goals, but the gender composition, attributes, and practices of the teams are very distinct. Understanding how women and other underrepresented populations develop as engineers is essential for building an innovative and inclusive engineering workforce for the 21st century.The project addresses research questions related to the self-efficacy and professional development of engineering college students, specifically: How do extracurricular activities shape students’ self-efficacy in pursuit of an engineering career? What elements, such as contextual supports, are considered critical for development of undergraduate students’ efficacy? What are the practices and attributes of each team environment that promotes engineering and career self-efficacy among team members? How do extracurricular team activities and self-efficacy influence students’ assimilation into the engineering workplace? Self-efficacy is an established component in the professional formation of engineers, thus results from the proposed study could help refine gender specific theories about how engineers develop. A mixed-methods approach, involving current members and alumni from each team, will be employed to address the study goals and research questions that includes the following tasks: (1) Administration of quantitative surveys; (2) Interviews with team leaders; (3) Interviews and focus groups with team members; and (4) Synthesis of the qualitative and quantitative research findings. Our findings will analyze, by gender and age, how self-efficacy develops differently for males and females in informal settings, such as experiential extracurricular activities. The study will also generate information about how the practices and attributes of groups in informal settings contribute to improved self-efficacy. The findings could be used to make recommendations about best practices that could be leveraged to retain a more diverse population in the field of engineering. Ongoing formative assessment will include input from the project’s external advisory board. Expected outcomes will likely identify attributes and practices associated with extracurricular experiential activities that contribute to improved self-efficacy among women in engineering disciplines. Findings from the study will also be used to develop interactive workshop activities for K-12 students with a focus on self-efficacy. Project results will be disseminated through project and affiliate web sites, conferences, and publications.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.