3.1. Rationale for Methods and Procedures
The ultimate goal of this study was to provide educators with a clear
description of engineering students’ efficacy beliefs. At present, numerous
efficacy assessment tools are available to assist educators in determining just
how efficacious their students are. Unfortunately, these tools do little to assist
educators in acting upon their results. In the end, such tools only provide
educators with a number that is void of any information about why students feel
the way they do, how they have come to hold particular beliefs, or who or what
has influenced their beliefs. Educators are therefore left to guess at what they
can do to promote the development of accurate, positive efficacy beliefs among
their students.