Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

The factor validity of a pilot instrument to assess upper-division engineering students’ self-efficacy beliefs (SE beliefs) about their lower-division mathematics was established. The instrument aimed at identifying how junior and senior engineering students relate their lowerdivision mathematics knowledge to the solution of upper-division engineering problems in two disciplines: Electrical & Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The pilot instrument was used to predict a priori the hypothesis that those students who believe that solving core, upper-division engineering problems is: (a) influenced by their effective use of lower-division mathematics (i.e., their outcome expectancies or OE beliefs); (b) who also have confidence in their own mathematical abilities (SE beliefs) should be more skilled at setting-up and solving these problems. The instrument was subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis using the structural modeling feature in SAS, v.9. Reliability analysis produced a Cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.862 for the mathematics SE beliefs scale and a Cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.797 for the OE scale (n = 49). The current standard is that 0.7 ≤ α < 0.8 is good and that 0.8 ≤ α < 0.9 is very good. These results provide evidence that the pilot instrument items measure an underlying (latent) construct. Confirmatory factor analysis indicates that these two scales are independent, thus adding to the construct validity of this instrument. The paper concludes with a discussion concerning how students’ SE and OE beliefs are postulated to affect students’ problem solving skills of upper-division electrical and mechanical engineering problems.

Comments

Originally Published in:

ASEE PEER 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 06/23/2013

©2013 American Society for Engineering Education, 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition at Atlanta, Georgia.

DOI: 10.18260/1-2--19192

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