Increasing instrumentality without decreasing instructional time: An intervention for engineering students

Calculus is essential to the engineering curriculum, though its value is not necessarily apparent when the topics are first introduced to students. Our goal was to develop a series of interventions that credibly presented students with information about the utility of calculus topics through a 5-minute video segment. If successful, this intervention would provide instructors with a way to increase the perceived utility of the curriculum without significantly decreasing their instructional time. We recruited 463 students enrolled in Calculus II for engineers. All instructors teaching this course consented to participation in this study and classes were randomly assigned to video and no-video groups. The video group received three interventions during the weeks they were being exposed to the content. The no-video group did not receive any intervention of any kind but were measured at the same points in time as the video group. Results indicate that perceived instrumentality (PI) increased after the first intervention and remained high throughout the semester in the video group. The results suggest that the intervention influenced students perceptions of instrumentality. Theoretically, this provides additional evidence that PI, value, and orientation are constructs distinct from self-efficacy (SE); practically, it provides instructors with a way to improve student motivation without making extensive changes to their courses.