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Full-Text Articles in Education
Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble: How A Hands-On Engineering Project Affects High School Girls' Science/Engineering Self-Efficacy, Interest And Career Considerations, Jennifer Corbett Ferguson
Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble: How A Hands-On Engineering Project Affects High School Girls' Science/Engineering Self-Efficacy, Interest And Career Considerations, Jennifer Corbett Ferguson
Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences
Engineering education as part of the K-12 curriculum can be an effective instructional tool and its benefits include improved science and mathematical achievement as well as an increased interest and understanding of the engineering field, especially for female students. However, there is a serious lack of research-based engineering curriculum being used at the middle and high school levels and lessons most often rely on building or construction competitions. Over the past decade or two, many well-known colleges have implemented a reverse engineering instructional unit known as Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble projects within their introductory engineering courses. These units have been shown to improve …
Assessing Stem Literacy In An Informal Learning Environment, Maureen Ann Lafemina Cavalcanti
Assessing Stem Literacy In An Informal Learning Environment, Maureen Ann Lafemina Cavalcanti
Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences
This mixed methods study investigated methods for assessing STEM literacy amongst middle grades students participating in an informal learning environment, specifically, a summer STEM camp. Adopting a situated perspective on STEM literacy, this dissertation employed psychometric techniques and discourse analysis to answer the overarching research question: How can STEM literacy amongst middle school students be assessed in the context of a summer STEM camp? An integrated review of literacy within and across STEM disciplines first offered a new direction for conceptualizing STEM literacy. With this understanding, subsequent research methods applied novel approaches for investigating STEM literacy in the context of …
Measuring Undergraduate Students’ Engineering Self-Efficacy: A Scale Validation Study, Natasha Johanna A. Mamaril
Measuring Undergraduate Students’ Engineering Self-Efficacy: A Scale Validation Study, Natasha Johanna A. Mamaril
Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology
The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate engineering self-efficacy measures for undergraduate students (N = 321) and to examine whether students' engineering self-efficacy differed by gender, year level, and major. The relationships between engineering self-efficacy and academic achievement and intent to persist in engineering were also investigated. Data from engineering students from two southeastern universities were collected in spring 2013. Exploratory factor analyses resulted in a unidimensional general engineering self-efficacy scale and a three-factor (i.e., research skills, tinkering skills, and engineering design) engineering skills self-efficacy scale. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that self-efficacy did not differ by …