Fitting in and feeling good: the relationships among peer alignment, instructor connectedness, and self-efficacy in undergraduate satisfaction with engineering

Marina Micari

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined the relationships among peer alignment (the feeling that one is similar in important ways to one's engineering peers), instructor connectedness (the sense that one knows and looks up to academic staff/faculty members in the department), self-efficacy for engineering class work (confidence in one's ability to successfully complete engineering class work), and engineering students' satisfaction with the major. A total of 135 sophomore (second-year university students) and junior (third-year students) engineering students were surveyed to measure these three variables. A multiple regression analysis showed that self-efficacy, peer alignment, and instructor connectedness predicted student satisfaction with the major, and that self-efficacy acted as a mediator between both peer alignment and instructor connectedness on the one hand, and satisfaction on the other. The authors offer suggestions for practice based on the results.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)380-392
Number of pages13
JournalEuropean Journal of Engineering Education
Volume41
Issue number4
StatePublished - 2016

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