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to see the entire research report - Rowan - Rowan University

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CHAPTER II-B<br />

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENGINEERING SELF-CONFIDENCE AND<br />

BACKGROUND FACTORS<br />

In this chapter we focus on <strong>the</strong> interrelationship between <strong>the</strong> students’ engineering<br />

self-confidence and <strong>the</strong>ir background characteristics. We begin by presenting <strong>the</strong> measure<br />

of engineering self-confidence developed in this study. We <strong>the</strong>n show <strong>the</strong> relationship<br />

between this engineering self-confidence and background characteristics of <strong>the</strong> first-year<br />

students, and <strong>the</strong>n show how <strong>the</strong> relationship changes with level in <strong>the</strong> program.<br />

THE MEASUREMENT OF ENGINEERING SELF-CONFIDENCE<br />

Self-confidence in engineering was measured by about 20 questions for which <strong>the</strong><br />

students rated <strong>the</strong>ir self-confidence in a number of engineering-related areas, including<br />

such indica<strong>to</strong>rs as how confident <strong>the</strong>y were that engineering was <strong>the</strong> right major for <strong>the</strong>m,<br />

how confident <strong>the</strong>y were in <strong>the</strong>ir academic abilities generally, how competent <strong>the</strong>y were<br />

in skills required for <strong>the</strong>ir major. Indica<strong>to</strong>rs were fac<strong>to</strong>r analyzed. The analysis showed<br />

that <strong>the</strong>se indica<strong>to</strong>rs contained four fac<strong>to</strong>rs, thus reducing <strong>the</strong> number of indica<strong>to</strong>rs in<strong>to</strong><br />

four main indices that were used <strong>to</strong> reflect <strong>the</strong> main aspects of engineering self-<br />

confidence. 16<br />

The first fac<strong>to</strong>r (CONF STAY ENG) expresses how confident <strong>the</strong> student is that <strong>the</strong>y<br />

belong in engineering and will stay with <strong>the</strong> major and <strong>the</strong> career. Indica<strong>to</strong>rs contributing<br />

<strong>the</strong> most <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> score on this first fac<strong>to</strong>r were <strong>the</strong> student’s agreement that: “engineering<br />

is <strong>the</strong> right major for me”, that <strong>the</strong>y are unlikely <strong>to</strong> drop out of <strong>the</strong> program before<br />

16 See more details about <strong>the</strong> construction of <strong>the</strong> fac<strong>to</strong>rs in Appendix B.<br />

IIB-77

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