Cooperative education as a means to enhance self-efficacy among sophomores (with particular attention to women) in undergraduate engineering

Northeastern University and the University of Wyoming are investigating whether the participation of sophomores (with particular attention to women) in formal undergraduate engineering programs that provide work experiences while enrolled (e.g., cooperative education and internships) is related to enhanced self-efficacy. While self-esteem is a global concept and self-efficacy refers to confidence about a particular content area or set of tasks, general self-esteem tends to be related to an individual's feelings of self-efficacy. Research suggests that decreased self-esteem and self-efficacy of women in engineering majors are significant obstacles to persistence. Indeed, consistent findings reported through the Assessing Women in Engineering Project have reported that the persistence of women in engineering is highly related to efficacy. Thus, this study was designed to add to the body of literature on the retention of women in undergraduate engineering. The purpose of this study is to isolate those factors that contribute most to the development of three positive self-efficacy dimensions thought to be most relevant to the retention of sophomores (especially women) in undergraduate engineering: work, academic, and career. It examines, in particular, if cooperative education alone enhances efficacy (while controlling for pre-existing conditions among students enrolling in a cooperative education school as well as controlling for alternative supports for students to assist them during their undergraduate experience). One of the schools participating in the study, Northeastern, requires cooperative (co-op) education whereas the University of Wyoming does not.