Guided by research questions aimed at identifying sources of variation in
and between A-E and EM-E, strength of efficacy scores were subjected to a
number of tests. Based on the data’s rough normal distribution, t-tests for
independent samples were used to test for significant differences (α = 0.05) in
strength of efficacy by gender and by year in an engineering program.
Similarly, matched-pairs t-tests were used to determine whether students’ A-E
scores differed significantly (α = 0.05) from their EM-E scores. All statistical tests were performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)
15.0 for Windows, Student Version.