Efforts to increase enrollment in engineering and enhance the participation and proficiency of engineers have long been priorities, as emphasized by the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering. This imperative underscores the need for both a greater quantity and a higher caliber of engineers—colleges and universities are charged with helping students successfully progress through their programs to earn a degree. Existing research predominantly focuses on specific academic interventions or discrete support factors in attempts to understand how to best support academic success. My work, on the other hand, takes a comprehensive examination that quantifies students' perceptions of support across a wide range of sources and explores the relationship between these perceptions and student engagement in different activities.
Utilizing student support data collected from undergraduate students in Engineering, Science, and Mathematics at nine institutions during the spring of 2019, the study embarks on a multifaceted exploration that unfolds in three interconnected parts. The first part employs multiple comparison analyses to unveil distinct differences in perceptions of support among different student subpopulations. The second part delves into the relational dynamics between support perceptions and students' participation in co-curricular activities using binomial regression. The third part, employing multiple linear regression, scrutinizes this relationship from a reverse perspective, acknowledging the potential bidirectional nature by examining how the level of student engagement in a range of co-curricular activities relates to their perceptions of support.
The findings continue to establish further validity evidence for the newly developed STEM-SPSI tool. It also has the potential to offer valuable insights for educators, administrators, and policymakers intent on enhancing the inclusivity and efficacy of their programs. This study's potential implications underscore the importance of targeted support factors in fostering a more enriching and equitable co-curricular experience for undergraduate students. Embracing a more integrated perspective, this research contributes to evidence-based practices aimed at fostering the success and retention of students in STEM fields. / Doctor of Philosophy / Efforts to increase the number of engineers and improve their preparedness are a national priority, as emphasized by organizations like the National Academy of Engineering. Colleges and universities play a critical role in helping students succeed in their programs and earn degrees in engineering. Although most research has focused on specific academic programs or single support services, my study takes a broader look at how students perceive support from multiple sources and how these perceptions relate to their participation in activities outside the classroom.
Using data from undergraduate students in engineering, science, and mathematics at nine universities in 2019, the research examines three key areas. First, it compares how different groups of students perceive support in their academic institutions. Second, it looks at how students' participation in co-curricular activities relates to their feelings of support. Lastly, it explores the reverse: how students' levels of engagement in these co-curricular activities relates to their support perceptions.
The findings provide additional evidence of validity of the newly developed STEM-SPSI questionnaire, which measures student support. This research can help educators, administrators, and policymakers create more inclusive and effective programs that enhance students' overall experiences. By examining support and student engagement together, this study contributes to practices that can improve student success and retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/121228 |
| Date | 30 September 2024 |
| Creators | Taimoory, Hamidreza |
| Contributors | Engineering Education, Knight, David B., Kniola, David John, Lee, Walter Curtis, Katz, Andrew Scott |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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