Integrating cohorts to improve student career self-efficacy

Past research on student efficacy shows that students felt more confident in their selection of career field when they were able to “try it on for size.” Students have a desire to get their hands dirty and try using engineering tools early in the curriculum. Additionally, students often report a great deal of uncertainty about the curriculum and their ability to be successful in their academic and future careers. In this paper, we describe the integration of a discipline´s introductory course within the rest of the discipline´s curriculum. Student reported self-efficacy in the introductory engineering course was measured before and after the course activity was completed. Four questions were used to assess efficacy on a 5-point Likert scale. The largest increase in score was seen on the final efficacy question (M_pre4=3.59, M_post4=3.87). The average efficacy for all students and all questions was 4.04 (sd=1.01). Inferential results based on student classification, gender, prior work experience, and perceptions of the mentoring activity are discussed. Finally, implications and suggestions for the use of cohort integration in engineering programs are discussed.