The impact of contextualized, hands-on, collaborative learning on women's persistence in professional engineering: Preliminary findings from a mixed methods study

Abstract

As many of our female students desire to develop a successful career in industry, of particular interest is how contextualized, hands-on, collaborative learning contributes to their self-confidence and persistence in engineering. While research has indicated that active learning activities and cooperative experiences foster deeper learning and have an impact on persistence in the engineering workforce, there is limited empirical evidence of women's professional persistence and self-confidence as a result of this type of educational experience. Preliminary findings from a validated survey instrument, the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), the Academic Self-Efficacy (ASE), and the Professional Self-Efficacy (PSE) are presented. Key findings of what these women learned and appreciated, insight into the variations across the participants is provided as supported from interview transcripts, and professional career path goals are presented. These findings can aid engineering departments, diversity offices, career service offices, and industry review boards to foster academic experiences to improve women's persistence and success in professional engineering. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.