Workshop - filling in the gaps: The use of affective outcomes in engineering & CSET education research

Affective outcomes are highly underrepresented in engineering and CSET research at less than 1% of the overall body of education research in these technical fields. Yet, affective outcomes are a major player in the retention of women in engineering at the undergraduate level and are known in K-12 and higher education to have profound impacts on academic performance. This workshop looks at how to select established (reliable and valid) affective outcomes and fold them into existing engineering & CSET education research in a meaningful and informative way. This workshop will discus belonging and its companion outcome, psychological sense of community, which often impact students at the very start of their programs affecting persistence and retention. It will also examine self-efficacy and locus-of-control, which can have a more direct impact on academic performance, influencing test anxiety and team performance. Finally, it will look at broader relational measures, which indicate feelings of relatedness that can create emotional scaffolding to maintain stability during difficult academic times. Whether by self-report or by observation, these measures can be captured with a rigor equivalent to that of cognitive outcomes. In this workshop, we take a hands-on approach to incorporating affective outcomes into the toolbox of the engineering/CSET education researcher. Participants will have ample opportunity to consider, choose, and design affective outcomes into individual research projects and education interests.