2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Experimental Self-Efficacy and Troubleshooting Ability in a Chemical Engineering Laboratory

Presented at Chemical Engineering Division (ChED) Technical Session 9: Student Experiences in Laboratory Courses

This research serves as a first step toward investigating how educators might evaluate (and eventually improve) students’ self-efficacy and troubleshooting ability in an engineering laboratory. This study uses an established survey to assess the experimental self-efficacy (ESE) of students enrolled in a fourth-year chemical engineering laboratory course at the University of Virginia. The survey measures ESE using four factors: conceptual understanding, procedural complexity, laboratory hazards, and lack of sufficient resources. Results from the ESE survey suggest that students had higher confidence in their conceptual understanding and their ability to avoid laboratory hazards. This study also analyzes students’ troubleshooting abilities using an existing chemical reactor system (a water gas shift reaction). Students were asked to use the experimental equipment to perform an activity. To succeed, students needed to identify and correct a series of challenges (e.g., closed gas valves, empty reactant reservoirs). Researchers recorded their observations about students’ technical knowledge, processes, and troubleshooting strategies. Analysis of these observations suggests that students are more likely to read and follow directions or “spitball” ideas without strong use of troubleshooting strategies, though some participants successfully referenced conceptual understanding or used backtracking as troubleshooting strategies.

Authors

Caroline Crockett University of Virginia [biography]

Caroline Crockett is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Virginia. She received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Her educational research interests include conceptual understanding of electrical engineering concepts and assessing the impact of curriculum changes.
Dr. George Prpich http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2697-2276 University of Virginia [biography]

Professional Skills and Safety are my main pedagogical interests. I use the Chemical Engineering laboratory to implement safety training to improve safety culture, and to adapt assessment methods to enhance development of students’ professional skills. I am an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia and I hold a B.Sc. (University of Saskatchewan) and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (Queen’s University). Complimenting my pedagogical research is an interest in bioprocess engineering, environmental engineering, environmental risk management, and I have authored more than 40 peer reviewed publications in these fields. I’m also active in developing workforce development initiatives, specifically within the biopharmaceutical manufacturing space. Beyond academia, I have 7+ years of international consulting and public policy experience working with the U.K. government, European Union, and the United Nations.
Dr. Natasha Smith P.E. University of Virginia [biography]

Dr. Smith is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia

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