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Prior studies have identified the importance of resilience to success both in life and in the workplace. Resilience is also a valued professional skill for academic achievement and student retention in cognitively demanding disciplines such as engineering. However, only limited efforts have been made to characterize how resilience impacts the academic engagement, performance, and retention of engineering students. This study is the first in a program of studies that will map academic resilience, through the measurement of “protective factors” such as optimism and adaptability, with academic performance, as well as identify students at risk of dropping out of their engineering major. In this exploratory study, we examined differences in a group of engineering students on four resilience measures. Participants included 111 engineering students enrolled in six sections of statics taught by one instructor. Participants completed the Psychometric Project Resilience Scale (PPRS) survey online as well as the academic performance requirements for the course. The 50-item instrument surveyed students on five constructs indicative of resilience: adaptability; self-sufficiency; self-control; optimism; and persistence. Learning performance was based on three mid-examinations intended to assess students’ knowledge of the course. The psychometric properties of the instrument used to assess resilience factors were examined and student groups were compared on resilience and performance measures. Results of the study showed that transfer students seemed to struggle more with resilience and academic performance. Differences between gender and race groups in terms of resilience and academic performance were insignificant. Implications of study findings and direction for future studies of resilience among engineering students are discussed.
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Performance and perception: A preliminary examination of factors that may motivate students to bounce back
This work in progress (WIP) uses a mixed methods approach to consider how student satisfaction and performance affect academic resilience. A previous study introduced a sink, struggle, and soar model to quantitatively assess positive adaptation after a poor exam performance. An underlying assumption was that quantitative measures of performance would align with a student’s perception that they need to bounce back. However, some students who performed well by external standards still exhibited a strong desire to positively adapt, while other students who performed relatively poorly appeared unmotivated to adapt. In both scenarios, there appeared to be a mismatch between external measures of performance and internal perceptions. As part of an ongoing study of resilience, in this WIP we qualitatively and quantitatively examine student satisfaction with their performance. Preliminary data suggest that students with lower satisfaction than performance tend to focus on factors within their control when evaluating their performance. By contrast students with higher satisfaction than performance tend to attribute their low performance to external factors outside their control. As we continue to explore academic resilience, we hope that considering student satisfaction will provide insights into how to understand and help subpopulations in the classroom.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1927341
- PAR ID:
- 10292825
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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