Understanding Engineering Students' Stress and Emotions during an Introductory Engineering course

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 26.1622.1
• Main Authors: Husman, Jenefer, Cheng, Katherine C, Puruhito, Krista, Fishman, Evan J
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 14.06.2015
• Subjects: Biomarkers; Colleges & universities; Discomfort; Emotions; Engineering education; Engineering research; Ethics; Hormones; Multiple regression models; Saliva; Student retention; Students
• DOI: 10.18260/p.24958

Write-up for the Biological Response Study: Pilot Study – Part I Understanding Engineering Students Stress and Emotions during an Introductory Engineering course. Although recent research in engineering education has focused on student enjoyment ofcoursework and its influence on student retention, very little research has engaged theoreticalframeworks which identify the specific role that student beliefs and emotions play in courseengagement. Additionally educational research focusing on student beliefs, motivations, andemotions have only recently tied these beliefs to biological responses. We will presentfindings regarding students’ beliefs, emotions, and biological responses to stress during oneengineering ethics course. We suspect that students’ beliefs about the value of a course for their future as engineershas an impact on students’ academic emotions. We also propose that these beliefs andemotions will be jointly reflected in the bio-manifestations of students’ salivary profiles,represented by saliva cortisol (e.g., Gordis, Granger, Susman, & Trickett, 2006). Cortisol is ahormone released when humans experience stress or discomfort; recent research hasdemonstrated that cortisol levels in human saliva are good predictors of a biological responseto stress and discomfort. Few studies, however, have explored the associations betweencortisol levels and positive academic achievement emotions, specifically enjoyment. We hypothesized that student’s class-related positive emotions would negativelycorrelated with students’ cortisol levels; we also hypothesized that students’ endogenous PIwould positively predict their positive emotions, and would negatively predict their cortisollevels.Participants Our participants were recruited in an engineering ethics course at a public university inthe Southwest of the US. 31 consented to participate in our study. The sample wasrepresentative of the ASU Engineering program population (e.g., Stump, Husman, Corby,2014).ProceduresProcedures regarding saliva collection specifically followed best practices guidelinesprovided by the Institution of Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR). Twovalidated self-report measures of achievement emotions and perceptions of the value of acourse for future goals were used.Results of Multiple Regression Models Results showed that post-class enjoyment was predicted by endogenous perceptions ofWrite-up for the Biological Response Study: Pilot Study – Part Iinstrumentality, above and beyond pre-class cortisol levels (adjusted R2 = .36, R2 = .33, p< .001; see Table 2 for coefficients), explaining approximately 40% of the variance inpost-class enjoyment. Post-class cortisol was significantly predicted by pre-class enjoyment(adjusted R2 = .103, B = -.022, SE = .011, ZB = -.367, p < .05).Discussion This study explored engineering students’ cognitive, emotional, and biological responsesto an ethics course. Specifically, we found that class-related positive emotions negativelycorrelated with students’ cortisol levels, indicating that the more reported enjoyment a studentexperienced in class, the lower their cortisol levels. In addition, students’ value of the classfor achieving future goals predicted students’ positive emotions, suggesting studentsperception of a class as valuable for achieving a future goal can predict the positive emotionsthey experience in class. This examination provides methodological possibilities forunderstanding students’ responses to instruction using both bio-markers and self-report. Alsothe study provides evidence of the effect of beliefs on emotions, the effect of emotions onbiological responses.