Impact of non-cognitive factors on the performance of first-year engineering undergraduates

• Autores: Ryan R. Senkpeil, Edward Berger
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 34, no. 2, 2018, págs. 316-328
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This study of 575 undergraduate engineering students was designed to determine the impact of students’ non-cognitivefactors on their first year performance in college, beyond what their academic credentials can account for. In engineering—where most students are applying with exceptional academic credentials—these ‘‘cognitive’’ factors become poorpredictors of student performance. Therefore, a non-cognitive survey was administered to undergraduate engineeringstudents. A factor analysis was used to group the 36 non-cognitive survey items into four distinct factors: self-discipline,anxiety, plasticity, and follow through. These four non-cognitive factors predicted an additional 9 percent of the variancein first year GPA beyond what high school GPA and standardized test scores predicted. It was also discovered that gendermoderates the impact between certain non-cognitive factors and first year GPA. These results varied based on classroomsetting.