2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Exploring the relationship between key constructs of self-assessment components, motivation, and self-regulation in engineering

Presented at Self-Regulation and Learning

Assessment of learning and assessment for learning has been found to provide useful feedback to both learners and instructors when carried out consciously, dynamically, and most importantly, deliberately. Thus, providing students with an opportunity to self-assess their academic work can be an invaluable self-development exercise. Self-assessment involves evaluating one’s own performance and trajectory to an achievement goal. Self-assessment has the potential to increase student motivation to learn and self-regulatory behaviors that are essential for developing as a self-directed learner. Being able to appraise one’s academic goal and performances is vital to succeeding in an engineering career. Research suggests that students improve the effectiveness and quality of their educational experience when they carry out personal, unguided reflections on their performance, level of knowledge, skill, and understanding frequently. However, little is known about how students' reflections, motivation and self-directed learning are related within engineering context.
In this study, we explored the relationship between various factors that are relevant to self-assessments, motivation and self-regulation. We particularly examined the correlation between students’ self-reflection, perceptions of self-reflection, intrinsic motivation, control belief, task value, and effort regulation. Participants for the study were 119 electrical and computer undergraduate engineering students from a Southeastern University in the United States who participated in self-assessment activities and completed a questionnaire that include self-assessment, motivation, and self-regulation sub-scales. The survey was assessed on a 7-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed to determine the associations among the variables of interest.
The Pearson correlation coefficients was calculated and the result shows that self-assessment components of self-reflection, positive perception and intrinsic motivation have strong significant correlations. Both motivation variables of task value and control belief have medium to high correlation with the assessment components, and with effort regulation. The practical and theoretical implications of this study will be discussed. Differences in these associations across students’ group, and implication of the study for future research and engineering education practice will be discussed.

Authors

Taiwo Raphael Feyijimi http://orcid.org/0009-0009-5752-4175 University of Georgia [biography]

Taiwo is a highly skilled AI Engineer, Researcher, and Doctoral Student at the University of Georgia who completed his MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. He is currently leveraging AI to tackle simple and longstanding problems in engineering education.

With over a decade of industry experience as a Technology Strategist and Technical Lead, he has established himself as a forward-thinking innovator in AI and EdTech.

His expertise spans Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA), Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Prompt Engineering Techniques (PETs) with Large Language Models (LLMs). Taiwo is known for his ability to collaborate effectively within and across organizations to meet project goals and drive transformative results. He excels in leading technical teams, offering strategic IT consultations, and implementing solutions that enhance productivity.
Mr. Olanrewaju Paul Olaogun University of Georgia [biography]

Olanrewaju Paul Olaogun holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. He received his BSc. degree from the University of Benin, Nigeria and MSc. degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering. His research interest is focused on knowledge conceptualization and conceptual change. He has also worked extensively in the areas of students’ motivation, achievement goals, engagement, technology mediated learning and academic belonging.
Mr. ISAAC DAMILARE DUNMOYE Engineering Education and Transformation Institute, College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA [biography]

Dunmoye Isaac is an Engineering Education Ph.D. Student, in the College of Engineering, University of Georgia. His area of research focuses on students' educational experience in virtual and online learning environments. He is interested in qualitative and qualitative methodology research that are needed for proper design of instructional material, necessary for harnessing and experimenting the multidisciplinary nature of engineering context to make engineering education suitable for the 21st century.
Dr. Nathaniel Hunsu University of Georgia [biography]

Nathaniel Hunsu is an assistant professor of Engineering Education. He is affiliated with the Engineering Education Transformational Institute and the school of electrical and computer engineering at the university. His interest is at the nexus of the res

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