The Development and Validation of the Children’s Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale (CESES)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51355/j-stem.2024.136Keywords:
Engineering design process, Self-efficacy, STEM education, surveys and questionnaires, scale validationAbstract
In order to best prepare future generations to solve societal challenges, students should be provided with a foundation in problem solving skills. Accordingly, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) incorporates engineering design process skills along with the scientific practices. While engineering curriculum opportunities have expanded, research testing the efficacy of engineering design instruction on problem solving skills is limited. Self-efficacy research has long drawn connections of high science self-efficacy to improved attitudes and performance. However, little research has examined engineering design self-efficacy, and none has been conducted with children. This study reports the development and validation of the Children’s Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale (CESES). Participants included 212 children in grades 3-7 from a variety of instructional backgrounds. Initial results showed that the instrument produced a Cronbach’s alpha of .81. Factor analysis resulted in a five-factor model explaining 56.72 % of the variance. Additional analyses showed that the majority of participants had good to high engineering self-efficacy. The result of this research has implications for examining the growth of self-efficacy after STEM or engineering interventions both in school programs and in out-of-school programs.
References
Activation lab. (2019). STEM competency beliefs scale. ActApp: The Activation Lab Evaluation Toolkit. https://activationlab.org/toolkit/
Amato-Henderson, S., Mariano, J., Cattelino, P., & Hannon, B. (2007). Who You Know Does Matter in Engineering Self Efficacy. In Proceedings of the 2007 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conference.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Macmillan
Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (2001). Self?efficacy beliefs as shapers of children's aspirations and career trajectories. Child development, 72(1), 187-206. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00273
Betz, N. E., & Schifano, R. S. (2000). Evaluation of an intervention to increase realistic self-efficacy and interests in college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1690
Carberry, A. R., Lee, H. S., & Ohland, M. W. (2010). Measuring engineering design self?efficacy. Journal of Engineering Education, 99(1), 71-79. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2010.tb01043.x
Caspi, A., Gorsky, P., Nitzani-Hendel, R., Zacharia, Z., Rosenfeld, S., Berman, S., & Shildhouse, B. (2019). Ninth-grade students’ perceptions of the factors that led them to major in high school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Science Education, 103(5), 1176–1205. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21524
Caspi, A., Gorsky, P., Nitzani-Hendel, R., Zacharia, Z. C., Rosenfeld, S., Berman, S., & Shildhouse, B. (2020). Children's perceptions of the factors that led to their enrolment in advanced, middle-school science programmes. International Journal of Science Education, 42(11), 1915-1939. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2020.1802083
Conradty, C., Sotiriou, S. A., & Bogner, F. X. (2020). How creativity in STEAM modules intervenes with self-efficacy and motivation. Education Sciences, 10(3), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10030070
Cunningham, C. M., Lachapelle, C. P., Brennan, R. T., Kelly, G. J., Tunis, C. S., & Gentry, C. A. (2019). The impact of engineering curriculum design principles on elementary students' engineering and science learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 57(3), 423-453. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21601
Dilbeck, K. (2017). Factor analysis: varimax rotation. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods (Vol. 4, pp. 532-533). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483381411.n191
English, L. (2016). STEM education K-12: perspectives on integration. International Journal of STEM Education, 3(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-016-0036-1
Hair, J.F., Tatham, R.L., Anderson, R.E., & Black, W. (1998). Multivariate data analysis. Prentice-Hall
Hammack, R., & Ivey, T. (2017). Examining elementary teachers’ engineering self?efficacy and engineering teacher efficacy. School Science and Mathematics, 117(1-2), 52-62. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssm.12205
International Technology and Engineering Educators Association. (2020). Standards for technological and engineering literacy: The role of technology and engineering in STEM education. www.iteea.org/STEL.aspx
Larson, L. C., & Miller, T. N. (2011). 21st century skills: Prepare students for the future. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 47(3), 121-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2011.10516575
Larson, L. M., Pesch, K. M., Surapaneni, S., Bonitz, V. S., Wu, T. F., & Werbel, J. D. (2015). Predicting graduation: The role of mathematics/science self-efficacy. Journal of Career Assessment, 23(3), 399-409. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072714547322
Luo, T., So, W. W. M., Li, W. C., & Yao, J. (2021). The development and validation of a survey for evaluating primary students’ self-efficacy in STEM activities. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 30(3), 408-419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-020-09882-0
Massachusetts Department of Education (2001/2006). Massachusetts science and technology/engineering curriculum framework. Massachusetts Department of Education.
Menon, D., Wieselmann, J. R., Haines, S., & Asim, S. (2024). A meta-synthesis of the literature on science & engineering teaching self-efficacy: current gaps and future research directions. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2023.2297499
NSTA. (2011). Quality Science Education and 21st-Century Skills. https://www.nsta.org/nstas-official-positions/quality-science-education-and-21st-century-skills
Perkins Coppola, M. (2019). Preparing preservice elementary teachers to teach engineering: Impact on self?efficacy and outcome expectancy. School Science and Mathematics, 119(3), 161-170. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssm.12327
Pfitzner-Eden, F. (2016). Why do I feel more confident? Bandura's sources predict preservice teachers' latent changes in teacher self-efficacy. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01486
Ponton, M. K., Edmister, J. H., Ukeiley, L. S., & Seiner, J. M. (2001). Understanding the role of self?efficacy in engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 90(2), 247-251. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2001.tb00599.x
Utley, J., Ivey, T., Hammack, R., & High, K. (2019). Enhancing engineering education in the elementary school. School Science and Mathematics, 119(4), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssm.12332
Webb-Williams, J. (2018). Science self-efficacy in the primary classroom: Using mixed methods to investigate sources of self-efficacy. Research in Science Education, 48(5), 939-961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9592-0
Yesilyurt, E., Deniz, H., & Kaya, E. (2021). Exploring sources of engineering teaching self-efficacy for pre-service elementary teachers. International Journal of STEM Education, 8(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-021-00299-8
Yoon Yoon, S., Evans, M. G., & Strobel, J. (2014). Validation of the teaching engineering self?efficacy scale for K?12 teachers: A structural equation modeling approach. Journal of Engineering Education, 103(3), 463-485. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20049
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Amy Catalano

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.