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

该项目旨在扩展实践和组织属性的知识，这些知识可以用来改变非正式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师的专业形成，无论是对工科学生的发展，还是对早期职业生涯的工程专业人才的准备，都是至关重要的。这些非正式的体验活动在塑造工程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表现结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感的发展，并确定可以利用的活动属性，以减少不平等，同时改善代表性不足人群的职业成果。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任团队成员和校友。两个团队都有相似的绩效目标，但是团队的性别组成、属性和实践是非常不同的。了解女性和其他未被充分代表的群体如何发展成为工程师，对于建设21世纪创新和包容的工程劳动力至关重要。本项目针对工科大学生自我效能感与专业发展相关的研究问题，具体而言：课外活动如何塑造学生追求工程职业生涯的自我效能感？哪些因素，如情境支持，被认为对本科生效能感的发展至关重要？促进团队成员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专业形成的一个既定组成部分，因此拟议研究的结果可以帮助完善关于工程师如何发展的性别特定理论。将采用混合方法，包括每个团队的现任成员和校友，来解决研究目标和研究问题，包括以下任务：(1)管理定量调查；(2)团队负责人访谈；(3)与团队成员进行访谈和焦点小组讨论；(4)定性和定量研究成果的综合。我们的研究结果将按性别和年龄分析，在非正式环境中，如体验课外活动中，男性和女性的自我效能感发展如何不同。该研究还将产生关于非正式环境中群体的实践和属性如何有助于提高自我效能的信息。这些发现可以用来提出关于最佳实践的建议，这些建议可以用来在工程领域保留更多样化的人口。正在进行的形成性评估将包括项目外部咨询委员会的意见。预期结果可能会确定与课外体验活动相关的属性和实践，这些活动有助于提高工程学科女性的自我效能感。研究结果还将用于为K-12学生开发以自我效能为重点的互动研讨会活动。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 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.