Measuring Engineering Design Self‐Efficacy

B ackground Self‐concept can influence how an individual learns, but is often overlooked when assessing student learning in engineering. P urpose (H ypothesis ) To validate an instrument designed to measure individuals' self‐concepts toward engineering design tasks, three research questions were investigated: (a) how well the items in the instrument represent the engineering design process in eliciting the task‐specific self‐concepts of self‐efficacy, motivation, outcome expectancy, and anxiety, (b) how well the instrument predicts differences in the self‐efficacy held by individuals with a range of engineering experiences, and (c) how well the responses to the instrument align with the relationships conceptualized in self‐efficacy theory. D esign /M ethod A 36‐item online instrument was developed and administered to 202 respondents. Three types of validity evidence were obtained for (a) representativeness of multi‐step engineering design processes in eliciting self‐efficacy, (b) the instrument's ability to differentiate groups of individuals with different levels of engineering experience, and (c) relationships between self‐efficacy, motivation, outcome expectancy, and anxiety as predicted by self‐efficacy theory. R esults Results indicate that the instrument can reliably identify individuals' engineering design self‐efficacy (α = 0.967), motivation (α = 0.955), outcome expectancy (α = 0.967), and anxiety (α = 0.940). One‐way ANOVA identified statistical differences in self‐efficacy between high, intermediate, and low experience groups at the ρ < 0.05 level. Self‐efficacy was also shown to be correlated to motivation (0.779), outcome expectancy (0.919), and anxiety (—0.593) at the ρ < 0.01 level. C onclusions The study showed that the instrument was capable of identifying individuals' self‐concepts specific to the engineering design tasks.