Engineering Student's Mathematics Self-Efficacy Development in a Freshmen Engineering Mathematics Course

Engineering student's self-efficacy beliefs are strongly tied to their successful navigation of the engineering curriculum. Mathematics self-efficacy has been shown to be especially important to engineering student retention during the critical first two years of the curriculum. The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes in students' mathematics self-efficacy over the course of a freshman engineering mathematics course and examine the reasons that these changes occurred, using a mixed methods research approach. As a group, students' belief that they could solve mathematics problems (problem mathematics self-efficacy) improved, but their belief that they could be successful in future mathematics courses (courses mathematics self-efficacy) did not. Following individual analysis, differential factors for groups of students who increased, decreased, or remained the same in each construct are described. Educators can use results to incorporate efficacy-developing aspects of their mathematics courses.