Academic help-seeking as a stand-alone, metacognitive action: An empirical study of experiences and behaviors in undergraduate engineering students
Contemporary research investigating academic help-seeking behavior (HSB) is predominantly K-12 in focus. Few studies have examined HSB within an undergraduate engineering context. Primary efforts are quantitative which, due to typical engineering demographics, limits the voice of minority constituents. The purpose of this research is to develop a rich, empirical understanding of engineering students’ lived experiences of HSB ensuring the perspective of underrepresented groups. Self-efficacy (SE) and self-theory of intelligence (STOI) were examined as inputs into HSB.
This qualitative research is based on interviews of students’ perceptions and constant-comparative techniques drawn from grounded theory. A multi-approach sampling method was used to ensure varied experiences, equal gender, and ethnic diversity. Results indicate a diversity of themes related to SE and STOI as influencers to the metacognitive action of help-seeking resulting in internal conflict during a recursive HSB decision process. Additionally, results emerge casting HSB as a must-learned skill for engineering students. Gender and ethnic concerns are discussed.
Chris is currently a PhD student in the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia. Chris’ dissertation work is in the area of engineering education specifically investigating academic help-seeking behavior in undergraduate engineering students. Chris is also interested in energy transformation systems and is investigating acoustic to electrical conversion. After completing his PhD, Chris plans to teach in an engineering program and continue work in engineering education.
Prior to entering UGA, Chris worked in education as a business manager, an IT adviser, and special topics instructor in a local high school. He also volunteered as a SAT math instructor, a science and math tutor, and a robotics team coach. Chris worked for various corporations for over 20 years in microprocessor architecture, error correcting codes, and system architecture. Chris holds 21 patents, participated in many industry standard specification groups including PCI and SDRAM, presented at many conferences and proceedings including Comdex, CeBIT, CES, US Patent Office, IEEE Micro, and others. Chris has a bachelor’s (with highest honors) and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. Chris is married and has two sons. When he needs down time, Chris likes games of all types, hiking, sport shooting, and other outdoor activities. Chris also plays french horn in the local community band.
Dr. Joachim Walther is an Associate Professor of engineering education research at the University of Georgia and the Founding Director of the Engineering Education Transformations Institute (EETI) in the College of Engineering. The Engineering Education Transformations Institute at UGA is an innovative approach that fuses high quality engineering education research with systematic educational innovation to transform the educational practices and cultures of engineering. Dr. Walther’s research group, the Collaborative Lounge for Understanding Society and Technology through Educational Research (CLUSTER), is a dynamic interdisciplinary team that brings together professors, graduate, and undergraduate students from engineering, art, educational psychology, and social work in the context of fundamental educational research. Dr. Walther’s research program spans interpretive research methodologies in engineering education, the professional formation of engineers, the role of empathy and reflection in engineering learning, and student development in interdisciplinary and interprofessional spaces.
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.