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The role of intentional self-regulation in achievement for engineering
Conference proceeding   Open access

The role of intentional self-regulation in achievement for engineering

Morgan M. Hynes, Ann F. McKenna, Chris Rogers, Megan Kiely Mueller, Xaver Neumeyer and Richard M. Lerner
2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, pp.22.1500.1-22.1500.11
ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (Vancouver, BC, 06/26/2011–06/29/2011)
01/01/2011
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--18991
url
https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--18991View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The Role of Intentional Self-Regulation in Achievement in EngineeringLife, or “soft,” skills are an important, but often overlooked, component of engineering education. The acquisition of such skills has been linked in adolescence to greater success in high school and in later life pursuits. Based on this research, we investigated the processes of intentional self-regulation as indicative of positive, healthy or, more generally, adaptive behavior and development. Self-regulation was measured as the selection [S] of positive goals (e.g., graduation from college with good grades in one’s chosen major); the optimization [O] of one’s chances of attaining one’s goals (e.g.,executive functioning, planning, strategy formation, or resources recruitment); and the ability to compensate [C] effectively when, for instance, strategies fail or when initial goals are blocked. These “SOC” skills involve also loss-based selection [LBS], which involves making a new selection after initial failure or loss and thus the continued manifestation of adaptive intentional self-regulations.These four SOC skills (S< LBS< O, and C) align closely with engineering design process activities, such as selecting the best possible solutions to pursue, optimizing based on the constraints of the problem, and compensating for the challenges that arise in implementing a solution. Accordingly, the goal of the present research was to apply the existing methods developed for measuring these SOC skills among university undergraduate engineering students. Our underlying question was: Are such skills of particular importance to engineers as they develop their knowledge base and launch their careers?To answer this question, we conducted a cross-sectional study at two universities (labeledA and B) with sophomore, junior, and senior engineering students. Surveying approximately 400 students at each institution (about 50% engineering student and the remaining students from Arts & Sciences backgrounds), we measured students’ GPAs, extracurricular activities (major and non-major related), and SOC skills.Using multiple regression analysis, there appears to be a direct and positive relation between these intentional self-regulations skill sets (i.e., S, O, C, or LBS) and the GPAs of engineers in one of the universities and a mediated relation between SOC, activities, and GPA in the other university. For all groups of students there was also a relationship between participating in out-of-classroom “professional” (academic major-related)activities and GPA. Greater activities participation predicted higher GPA among both the engineering and liberal arts students.
 Engineering Social Sciences Technology Education & Educational Research Education, Scientific Disciplines Engineering, Multidisciplinary Science & Technology

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