Validating a scale to measure engineers’ perceived self-efficacy for engineering education outreach

Fogg-Rogers, Laura; Moss, Tim

Abstract

Education outreach in schools has been identified as a critical route to influence children's perceptions and capabilities for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics careers. Evidence suggests that providing non-teaching professionals like engineers with training programmes and structured experience can boost perceived self-efficacy to perform education outreach, which in turn means better quality and more frequent public engagement. A validated measure of the construct of perceived self-efficacy for engineering education outreach will be useful for effective science communication participation, research, and practise. This article presents the methods used to develop the Engineering Outreach Self-efficacy Scale (EOSS), along with initial reliability and validation results to support the scale's use. The 10-item scale was found to have good internal consistency and reliability (Cronbach's alpha α = .92) with a sample of 160 engineers. The scale had convergent validity with general self-efficacy. Engineers with more experience of education outreach had higher self-efficacy for engineering education outreach. There were no significant differences between male and female engineers. Initial test-retest results showed engineers receiving training in education outreach significantly improved their EOSS scores, indicating capability to detect change over time. It is hoped this scale will prove useful for further evaluation of engineering education outreach and public engagement with science activities.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 26, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Oct 16, 2019
• Publication Date: Oct 16, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 17, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 17, 2019
• Journal: PloS one
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 10
• Article Number: e0223728
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223728
• Keywords: education outreach, STEM careers, self-efficacy, scale validation, science communication, public engagement
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/3861996
• Publisher URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223728