Let Students Show What They Can Do
Such mastery experiences are key to self-efficacy and success.
By Debbie Chachra
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.”
I disagree with the first part of this bromide – there’s no shortage of overconfidence in the world – but the second part illuminates a key factor in engineering students’ persistence and retention. Engineering students who don’t think they can succeed at engineering are far more likely to leave the program, or to leave the field after they graduate. Even while still in engineering, students who don’t believe that they can succeed at it aren’t likely to take on academic challenges.
It’s easy to say, “Well, students know what their grades are, and if they don’t think they’re good at engineering, they’re probably right and should leave engineering.” But this presumes that how students feel about succeeding in engineering is entirely and uniquely determined by their academic success, and that turns out not to be the case: A number of other factors affect their confidence in doing engineering.
This concept is formally known as self-efficacy, the belief that one can succeed at a particular task or in a particular situation, and was developed by Albert Bandura as part of his social cognitive theory approach. It’s different from the generalized, Stuart Smalley-style, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” that we associate with confidence. Self-efficacy is very narrowly focused on a specific area or set of tasks.
In engineering, self-efficacy is affected by a number of factors. Mastery experiences, related tasks whose completion results in increased self-efficacy in the field, are the primary contributor. Much of our work as educators is to create scaffolded learning experiences for our students. We presume that these experiences also develop our students’ self-efficacy, although it’s certainly possible to engage in learning experiences that don’t lead to increased self-efficacy. From my own undergraduate experience, I remember final exams in which I correctly answered something like 20 percent of the questions, but that was graded on such a steep curve that I received an A for the course. Despite what it said on my transcript, I certainly didn’t leave those courses feeling remotely confident in my ability.
Mastery experiences aren’t the only contributors to engineering self-efficacy. Two other factors that affect it are vicarious experiences, observing similar people succeeding at relevant tasks, and social affirmation, feedback from others about one’s ability to succeed. In engineering, underrepresented groups face a double whammy: Not only are they likely to have fewer role models, but alas they often face social negation instead of affirmation. (The classic example of this is the look of surprise on people’s faces when women say that they’re engineers.) And indeed, this is borne out by the data: Regardless of their grades, women are likely to have lower academic self-confidence in engineering-related areas, and low self-confidence is one of the main reasons women leave engineering programs.
What this tells us is that we need to think consciously about the learning experiences we create for our students, and about how to ensure they are mastery experiences that foster the development of engineering self-efficacy. We want our students to have engineering self-efficacy that matches their actual abilities; they should be neither arrogant nor overconfident, but should not deny themselves opportunities because they lack a self-efficacy that matches their skills and abilities. The latter is especially a concern for students from underrepresented demographics, including socioeconomic circumstances and being the first in the family to go to college. This means both designing learning experiences that allow them to have mastery experiences, with teams designed so that all students have an equal opportunity to contribute, and thinking about what we can do about providing vicarious experiences and positive social affirmation. We want all our students to embrace challenges, and to apply for that selective fellowship or popular job. To do this, it’s not enough that they can, they have to believe they can.
Thanks to Laura Hirshfield of the University of Michigan for feedback and discussion.
Debbie Chachra is an associate professor of materials science at Olin College.