Self-efficacy beliefs of first-year engineering students: In their own words

Abstract

Numerous studies have used quantitative self-efficacy measures to predict the choices, achievement, and interests of undergraduate engineering students. Self-efficacy theorists, however, argue that a discovery-oriented, qualitative approach is required to better understand the sources and cognitive processing of students' self-efficacy beliefs - their beliefs about their abilities to complete the tasks that they deem necessary to achieve a desired outcome. This study has therefore employed qualitative measures to investigate the self-efficacy beliefs of first-year engineering students enrolled in ENGR 106, Engineering Problem-Solving and Computer Tools, at Purdue University. Here, findings based on the phenomenographical analysis of one-on-one interviews with nine students enrolled in the course in the fall of 2004 are presented. These findings provide insight into how aspects of the course environment influence the formation of first-year engineering students' efficacy beliefs. Results demonstrate the susceptibility of firstyear engineering students' self-efficacy beliefs to the influence of social comparisons. Descriptions of how students make social comparisons, including the logical progression from a specific experience through the modification of confidence in success, are offered. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2006.