2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This study investigated the potential of a problem-solving communication rubric as a tool to improve academic performance of first-year engineering students in their foundational mathematics courses, either engineering calculus I or engineering precalculus. Student performance in their first engineering mathematics course has been shown to be strongly predictive of persistence in the degree, and is thus a potentially productive opportunity to strengthen students’ initial success in engineering programs. The literature consistently documents that non-cognitive factors, such as conscientiousness, academic mindsets (comprising sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and perceived costs), metacognitive learning strategies, and academic behaviors are individually predictive of academic performance. Building on that literature and the latest theoretical models of relationships among non-cognitive factors, we hypothesize that these non-cognitive factors may be malleable with the inclusion of a well-structured problem-solving communication rubric as an effective feedback tool for students. We model how these various factors converge and interact in ways that ultimately affect students’ academic perseverance and success. Our research explores whether teaching tools such as a problem-solving communication rubric can positively impact these factors, and our model permits us to extract potential underlying mechanisms for how they can improve student performance in engineering mathematics.

Results of an earlier pilot study showed that the use of this rubric was associated with improved academic performance, as students who improved in their sophistication of using the rubric demonstrated a 12.5% improvement in their final exam scores compared to those who did not The current study extends those findings by investigating not just performance outcomes but the underlying mechanisms that contribute to these improvements. Pre-test surveys were conducted with a sample of 229 calculus and 96 pre-calculus students to assess their baseline conscientiousness, academic mindsets, metacognitive learning strategies, and academic behaviors at the beginning of the academic year, alongside additional data such as ACT scores and prior GPA as measures of their overall academic readiness, before they begin their engineering mathematics courses. The post-test surveys, which will be conducted at the end of the term in early December 2024, will allow us to evaluate changes in these factors and their relationship to academic performance operationalized by their final exam calculus and pre-calculus scores, particularly how the use of the rubric may influence these variables. The study will employ structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze in a simultaneous interconnected fashion (rather than one by one as has been typically done in the literature) the interactions between the non-cognitive factors, the use of the rubric, and students’ academic performance.

This study contributes new evidence to the field of engineering education regarding the role of structured rubrics in supporting student success through its impact on non-cognitive factors. This research has the potential to inform instructional practices not only in engineering calculus but across the broader STEM curriculum, providing a scalable intervention to improve student outcomes and persistence in engineering programs.