The effect of cooperative education on the self-efficacy of students in undergraduate engineering

Abstract

This study examines the effect of cooperative education, controlling for contextual support and demographic characteristics, on three dimensions of self-efficacy change: work, career, and academic. It is based on a pathways model that links contextual support and cooperative education and other forms of student work experience, such as internships, to self-efficacy as a basis for retention in college and in the engineering major. Of the three forms of self-efficacy, work self-efficacy was found to be the one efficacy form impacted by cooperative education. Since self-efficacy is shaped by performance accomplishments, students' success in their co-op jobs appears to enhance their confidence in performing a variety of behaviors that are particular to handling the requirements of the workplace. Change in work self-efficacy from students' second to third years was also affected by change in students' confidence in their career orientation. It was found that the quality of the co-op placement, in particular such dimensions as the chance to make a difference, to be part of a team, and to apply knowledge from one's major enhanced students' subsequent work self-efficacy. The latter placement dimension enhanced both career and work self-efficacy. Co-op students were also found to rely less on support provided by their colleges, friends, parents, and academic advisors. They were also found to value the instruction of their professors less once returning to class after their first co-op experience - perhaps a reflection of the latter's potential lack of current and real-world understanding. Co-op students' GPAs were also found to decrease less between the second and third years than those of non-co-op students. The finding regarding the impact of co-op on work self-efficacy is claimed here to open up the so-called "black box of co-op" to articulate the practices and behaviors of cooperative education that shape its contribution to the undergraduate experience. The data pool for this study was constituted of all second year students in the colleges of engineering from four participating universities. Student respondents initially filled out a 20-minute survey, among which were assessments of the three forms of self- efficacy. They then filled out a comparable post-survey one year later (as third year students) during which those selecting co-op would have completed their first co-op placement. At the completion of the study, there will be an attempt to determine whether the participation in not only one but two coops can reverse a trend, especially among women undergraduates, to drop out of engineering because of their lack of confidence in continuing their concentration in engineering studies. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.