Relationships Between Engineering Course Climate and Domain-Specific Beliefs: Differences Between Men and Women

• In Event: Toward Inclusion: Educational Climate in Professions Education

Abstract

Because women are underrepresented in engineering fields, we examined the motivational climate in an undergraduate course within a college of engineering to determine if the climate was related to women’s motivational beliefs. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in how men’s and women’s perceptions of the motivational climate predicted their motivational beliefs (e.g., expectancy for success, values). Students in a computer science (CS) course (n = 355) completed a survey. Our regression analyses showed that both men’s and women’s perceptions of the motivational climate can affect their beliefs about an engineering domain, such as computer science. The pattern of results was similar for the men and women, but some considerable differences were identified.

Authors

• Brett D. Jones, Virginia Tech

• Inyoung Kim, Virginia Tech

• Hande Fenerci, Virginia Tech

• Margaret Ellis, Virginia Tech

• Zeynep Ambarkutuk, Virginia Tech