Understanding the Educational and Career Pathways of Engineers (2018) / Chapter Skim
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3 Factors That Influence the Decision Making of Engineering Students and Graduates
3 Factors That Influence the Decision Making of Engineering Students and Graduates
Pages 81-116
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From page 81... ...
A theoretical model, called social cognitive career theory (SCCT) , is used to identify the factors that affect an individual's educational and career decisions as well as potential points for interventions to increase the likelihood that individuals will complete an engineering degree and use the skills and knowledge gained in their education throughout their career.
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From page 82... ...
: self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations. Because social cognitive career theory is the most recent and most comprehensive model that explicitly incorporates contextual supports and barriers that shape career choices, and most of the research across age groups has been based on SCCT whereas the expectancy value model focuses primarily on choices made in early adolescence, the committee uses SCCT as the principal framework for the analysis in this chapter.
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From page 83... ...
. Learning experiences in turn shape self-efficacy expectations and outcome expectations, which then shape interests, goals, and actions.
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From page 84... ...
, experiential, and institutional factors such as learning experiences, self-efficacy and outcome expectations, interests, barriers and supports, and even policies. Learning Experiences: K–12 Preparation Initial STEM career choice in high school has been shown to predict later career choice, although boys were overall more interested in engineering and girls more interested in medical and health-related STEM careers (Sadler et al.
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HERI data on first-year students who wish to earn an engineering degree show nearly identical percentages of women and underrepresented minorities (20.6 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively) , significantly lower percentages for both than in the general college population, where women are over 50 percent and African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Hispanics of any race constitute almost a third of enrolled college students.
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From page 86... ...
in high school but low standardized test scores, as is true of many female and URM students, are more likely to graduate with an engineering degree within 6 years of matriculation than students of any race with high test scores and a low GPA, suggesting that high school GPA better predicts completion of an engineering degree for many under epresented groups than standard r ized tests (Myers 2016)
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learning interventions designed to increase math self-efficacy and ultimately the choices of middle and high school girls and underrepresented minorities about entering STEM fields (OSTP 2013)
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. Self-Efficacy in Math and Science Strong self-efficacy in math and science is likely to provide students with the wherewithal to overcome setbacks and persist in the face of obstacles, leading to interest in and consideration of an initial career choice in engineering.
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. They also had higher high school GPAs and higher average SAT scores than those intending to pursue other STEM majors, and the students who completed an engineering degree had more engineering-related preparation in their primary and secondary education.
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. Financial outcome expectations (e.g., believing that engineers are well paid and that an engineering degree will guarantee a job)
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Taken together, these results suggest that even women and URM students who are interested in STEM fields do not enter them because of other factors, which are discussed in the next section. Contextual Influences at the K–12 Level: Barriers and Supports Contextual influences are "variables that enhance or constrain" progress toward a career (Lent et al.
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For example, many engineering schools rely more heavily on math ACT scores as an admissions criterion than on high school GPA, a practice that favors White and Asian male applicants, who are more likely both to take these tests and to score well on them. But as mentioned above, for some underrepresented groups, high school GPA may better predict success in an engineering program: Individuals with a high GPA in high school but low standardized test scores were more likely to graduate with an engineering degree in six years than those with high ACT math scores but a low high school GPA (Myers 2016)
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Persistence Studies have begun to identify characteristics of students who leave an engineering major and those who persist to complete an engineering degree. A number of students earn their degree after attending two or more 2- or 4-year institutions or not attending school for some portion of time.8 In fact, the traditional model of full-time students entering and graduating from the same 4-year institution is not true for a majority of STEM students (NASEM 2016)
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. In fact, internal factors -- particularly outcome expectations, self-efficacy,
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Compared to other majors, engineering majors face a greater workload demand (as measured by self-reported time spent preparing for class) that often requires them to choose between pursuing an engineering degree and having additional and alternative educational and social experiences such as taking classes outside their major or participating in activities that are not engineering-related (Lichtenstein et al.
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From page 96... ...
Messages that describe engineering as a field that involves under standing, defining, and solving important societal problems using a mix of technical and professional skills, interdisciplinary work, social consciousness, creativity, and multicultural understanding impart knowledge of the field to all students, and seem to be particularly important for female and URM students, who otherwise may not see engineering as a viable option for themselves. Instructional strategies that use holistic, real-world applications of STEM tend to be more effective for attracting and retaining women and underrepresented groups (Margolis and Fischer 2002; Sadler et al.
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. External Factors: Contextual Supports and Barriers Career choices and even options can be importantly shaped by contextual experiences during students' under graduate years.
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. Mentors who provide images of futures (outcome expectations)
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. Finding: The low numbers of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering education and the engineering workforce dictate that the pathways and motivations of every group be considered fully and that the entire engineering community -- educators, employers, research funders, policymakers, and engineering professionals -- work collaboratively to improve diversity.
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. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE POSTGRADUATE DECISIONS AND ACTIONS An engineering degree leads to a variety of career pathways and options, so there are no simple answers to questions about the postgraduation pathways of engineering majors.
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, and career paths evolve. Predictors of Early Career Choices Many early-career engineering graduates express a desire for stability in their general career plans, in that they would like to remain in the same industry for several years; those who expect to work right away in industry generally say the same when asked about their career goals (appendix C)
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From page 102... ...
. The longitudinal data presented in chapter 1 illustrate engineering degree holders' job changes and migration into and out of the field, showing how graduates "live out" their engineering and non-engineering career interests (recall that some 65 percent of engineering juniors and seniors had interests in both)
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. As explained in chapter 1, although nearly 90 percent of BS engineering graduates use the skills and knowledge of their degree, only 45 percent of recent BS engineering graduates and 35 percent of all degreed engineers work in engineering occupations narrowly defined.
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. A number of studies have documented that women and underrepresented minorities leave engineering occupations at a higher rate than their White and Asian American male counterparts, and research has explored factors contributing to this divergence.
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, founder and CEO of Infinut Interventions to Foster Retention in the Workplace Research on attrition, retention, or advancement in engineering has focused on the differences between men and women, with limited research on interventions directed toward underrepresented minorities or other marginalized groups (e.g., persons with disabilities, LGBT individuals)
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. Organizational cultures that benefit women and underrepresented minorities do not negatively affect male majority employees.
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From page 107... ...
and would also be pleased if their child chose an engineering career in part because of the high salary.11 • Provide students with accurate information about engineering, both to counter stereotypes of the nature of engineering work and the people who do it, and to prepare them to navigate their education and enter the workforce. • Cultivate students' positive outcome expectations of an engineering major and career by emphasizing the message that engineering encompasses social and professional as well as technical skills and equips graduates to do interesting work in a wide range of occupations, help define and solve important problems for people and society, and make a difference in the world.
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From page 108... ...
The following actions have been shown to improve retention for all students in undergraduate engineering education: • Communicate clearly to students throughout their college experience that engineering is about understanding, defining, and solving important problems for people and society, and that it requires a mix of technical and professional skills, an ability to communicate and work effectively across disciplinary boundaries and with many different stakeholders, strong social consciousness, creativity, multicultural understanding, and business/entrepreneurial understanding. Make students aware of the potential near-term and lifelong rewards of an engineering degree, the high versatility of the technical and professional skills learned, the fact that an engineering degree is a pathway to many different careers, and the fact that individuals with engineering degrees earn high initial and lifelong salaries.
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2010. Gender differences in elements of the undergraduate experience that influence satisfaction with the engineering major and the intent to pursue engineering as a career.
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2010. Supports and barriers that recent engineering graduates experience in the workplace.
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non-engineering majors. Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, June 14–17, Seattle.
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2000. Contextual supports and barriers to career choice: A social cognitive analysis.
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2003. Relation of contextual supports and barriers to choice behavior in engineering majors: Test of alternative social cognitive models.
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2003. A longitudinal examination of the social-cognitive model applied to high school girls' choices of nontraditional college majors and aspirations.
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2014. Studying the career pathways of engineers: An illustration with two data sets.
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Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, June 23–26, Atlanta. Wiswall M, Zafar B
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