Women in Engineering: Focus on Self-Efficacy in Modeling and Design through Project-Based Learning

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

9-2019

Department

Teaching & Educational Leadership

Abstract

Ability to model and design engineering systems is central attribute of engineering education. With the rapid technological advances in diverse fields, the practice of engineering profession is taking place in a team environment. The diversity of engineering teams is important not only to promote creativity but also to achieve the goals of efficiency, usability, saleability, and innovation. In recent years, there has been focus on inducting more women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related field to promote diversity in engineering profession. Within the undergraduate engineering curriculum, the students pursue project-based learning (PBL) especially in courses involving modeling and design of engineering systems. The students learn to work in diverse teams, generate concepts, model and design systems, deploy designed prototypes, and communicate project outcomes. To measure the effectiveness of PBL methodology in undergraduate engineering education, it is important to determine the personal perception of self-efficacy of students. The concept of self-efficacy involves the perceptions of students on their self-belief and optimism to accomplish tasks and produce expected results with the skills acquired during the engineering curriculum. It is a major element to determine their chances of success in future as engineering professionals. To measure the effectiveness of PBL methodology in engineering modeling and design courses, an important research question is: Does the use of PBL methodology affect self-efficacy and course scores of male and female students differently? In this paper, we address this question by highlighting the results from a longitudinal study conducted on students in engineering modeling and design (junior-level) courses at Arkansas Tech University. We have statistically analyzed the collected data to compare the effect of PBL strategy on male and female engineering students’ selfefficacy and course scores. The results indicate that PBL approach was equally effective in improving self-efficacy and course scores of male and female engineering students. Significant improvement was observed in self-efficacy and course scores of both male and female students when the project based learning strategy was employed.

Publication Title

American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Midwest Section Conference Proceedings

Publisher

American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)

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