2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This study aims to better understand how the intrinsic and utility value which individual students place on their engineering education influences their classroom engagement. Expectancy-value theory is used to conceptually frame how these two values as well as self-efficacy (a measure of expectancy) predict cognitive engagement as measured by effort. Survey data (n=1,837) from a single large public institution obtained from both in-person (prior to and following the COVID-19 pandemic) and remote (during the pandemic) learning settings in mechanical and electrical and computer engineering have been analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). HLM accounts for potential nesting (variation) within the forty-three courses from which data was collected for this study. Student demographics including gender, race, ethnicity, family income, as well as international and first-generation status were also included in the HLM models as control variables as were the students’ initial desire to study engineering and their intrinsic interests. Consistent with expectancy-value theory, expectancy (measured by self-efficacy) and value (as measured by intrinsic and utility value) positively and significantly predicted cognitive engagement for all settings. Incoming interest in studying engineering was shown to have positive and significant associations to self-efficacy across the different time periods, but only during remote learning settings for value. Previous academic achievements as measured by overall GPA were shown to be consistent with existing literature in positively and significantly predicting self-efficacy. However, intrinsic interests had inconsistent associations and significance across time periods with both self-efficacy and value. Finally, race, gender, U.S. status, and economic background also played a role in determining self-efficacy and value, but not all demographics were uniformly linked to self-efficacy and value across the different time periods studied. While this study adds additional empirical evidence to support the validity of expectancy value theory, it also reinforces the importance of evolving teaching practices to better accommodate how engineering students’ background, goals, intrinsic interests, self-efficacy, and value impact engagement in classroom and laboratory work.