Assessing What We Value: Engineering Students’ Perceptions of Calculus Exams and Connections to their Future in Engineering

Assessments of learning should showcase what knowledge is valued in a field; however, the purpose and value of assessments may differ. This research explores how first-year engineering (FYE) students perceive the purpose of assessments in their Calculus I course and how those perceptions are connected to their future in engineering. This mixed methods study involves qualitative data (survey and interviews) and quantitative data (surveys) with FYE students enrolled in a Calculus I course. Surveys were distributed to all students in the course while interview participants came from a homogenous sample, determined by cluster analysis, of those students to adhere to the tenets of an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Factor analysis showed FYE students perceive the purpose of Calculus I exams in four ways: with a performance-driven purpose, a future-oriented purpose, an external purpose, or an adverse purpose. IPA revealed that connections between these perceptions of Calculus I exams and a student’s perceptions of their future in engineering were driven by the student’s perceived instrumentality of Calculus itself and the perceived instrumentality of the exams. Math test anxiety also played a role as an outcome of students’ identified future goal paths contingent on Calculus exams. These findings exemplify how students’ perceptions of the purpose of assessments differ from those reported by instructors and researchers within the literature. Being explicit in communicating the purpose of assessments is a step toward ensuring those assessments align with what is valued in a curriculum and in the professional formation of engineers.