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

该项目旨在扩大可用于改变非正规教育机会影响工程师职业形成的方式的做法和组织属性的知识。大学期间的课外体验活动对于工程师的职业形成是至关重要的，无论是对工科学生的发展，还是对早期工程专业人才的培养都是如此。这些非正式的体验活动在塑造工科学生的自我效能感或感知能力水平方面发挥了重要作用，这是一种认知决定因素，与个人的学习和表现结果有关。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感的发展，并确定可用来减少不平等的活动属性，同时改善任职人数不足的人群的职业结果。这项研究将涉及罗切斯特理工学院(RIT)两个不同的汽车竞赛团队的现任团队成员和校友。两个团队都有相似的绩效目标，但团队的性别组成、属性和实践非常不同。了解女性和其他代表性不足的人群是如何发展成为工程师的，对于建设一支创新和包容的21世纪工程劳动力队伍至关重要。该项目研究了与工科大学生的自我效能感和专业发展相关的研究问题，特别是：课外活动如何塑造学生追求工程职业的自我效能感？哪些因素，如背景支持，被认为对大学生效能感的发展至关重要？提升团队成员的工程和职业自我效能感的每个团队环境的实践和属性是什么？课外团队活动和自我效能感如何影响学生融入工程工作场所？自我效能感是工程师职业形成的一个既定组成部分，因此，这项拟议的研究结果可能有助于完善关于工程师如何发展的性别相关理论。将采用混合方法处理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)与小组领导人的访谈；(3)与小组成员的访谈和重点小组；(4)定性和定量研究结果的综合。我们的发现将按性别和年龄分析在非正式环境中，例如体验性课外活动中，男性和女性的自我效能感是如何不同地发展的。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。这些调查结果可以用来提出关于最佳做法的建议，这些最佳做法可以被用来留住工程领域更多样化的人群。正在进行的形成性评估将包括项目外部咨询委员会的意见。预期结果可能会确定与有助于提高工程学科女性自我效能感的课外体验活动相关的属性和做法。这项研究的结果也将被用来为K-12学生开发互动工作坊活动，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。

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.