A Project-Based Cornerstone Course in Civil Engineering: Student Perceptions and Identity Development

Oct 15, 2026

A study compares a project-based cornerstone course in civil engineering with a traditionally taught introductory course using a natural experiment design. Two sections share an overarching event-center design project, while others rely on guest lectures, a textbook, and traditional lab activities. Project-based students show stronger gains in creativity and design self-efficacy related to engineering identity, with interview findings highlighting real engineering practice. Pre/post results confirm design self-efficacy increases but reveal reduced mathematical self-efficacy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

| | Ad | vances in Engineering Edu | cation | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | SPRING 2018 A Project-Based Cornerstone Course in Civil Engineering: Student Perceptions and Identity Development JILL MARSHALL AMIT BHASIN STEPHEN BOYLES BERNARD DAVID RACHEL JAMES AND ANITA PATRICK University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX ABSTRACT Our study used a natural experiment to compare a project-based cornerstone course with the traditionally-taught introductory course in civil engineering. During the study, two sections of the course were organized around an overarching project, the design of an event center, and the remaining sections used guest lectures, a textbook, and traditional laboratory activities to familiarize students with civil engineering. Students in the project-based course gained more on measures of creativity and design self-efficacy on a survey of engineering identity than traditionally-taught students. Pre/post comparisons of the project-based students confirmed gains in design self-efficacy, but indicated a decrease in mathematical self-efficacy. In interviews students indicated that they recognized and appreciated that the project-based course enabled them to do real engineering, speaking to the development of engineering identity. They expressed concerns, however, that they might not be learning de-contextualized science and mathematics, a possible explanation for the decrease in mathematics efficacy. Key words: Project based instruction, self-efficacy, civil engineering INTRODUCTION As of 2013, women are still outnumbered by men in civil engineering by over 5 to 1, and the situation does not appear to be nearing gender parity. In 2012, only 19. 2% of undergraduate degrees SPRING 2018 1 ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION A Project-Based Cornerstone Course in Civil Engineering: Student Perceptions and Identity Development in engineering were awarded to women (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2013) . At our institution, the six-year graduation rate for all students in engineering was only 56%, below the national average. In civil engineering (CE) the retention rate, particularly for women, was a major concern. In many cases students leaving the program were not required to do so for academic reasons, i.e. , not because of insufficient capability or preparation. Rather, they were making a decision that another major or program was a better fit for them (Tobias, 1990; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997) . They did not feel that they belonged in CE; they were not developing a professional identity as civil engineers. In alignment with other researchers, we posit that the development of engineering identity is a critical element contributing to persistence in engineering (Knight et al. , 2013) . For the work we describe here, we have adopted a domain identification framework, in which students’ perceptions of coursework influence their development of engineering identity and motivation, resulting in choices and effort that in turn lead to academic outcomes, such as persistence and achievement (Jones, Osborne, Paretti, & Matusovich, 2014) . A strong correlation has been shown between engineering identity and retention in engineering (Tonso, 2014), particularly for women engineers (Meyers, Ohland, Pawley, Silliman & Smith, 2012; Jones, Ruff & Paretti, 2013) . In CE, the transition from freshman to sophomore year was identified as a critical point where students were lost to the program. An ongoing study of students’ identification with engineering has found that it typically dips from freshman to sophomore year, although recovering in junior and senior years for students who are retained (Patrick, Borrego & Prybutok, submitted) . In a survey offactors related to engineering identity, Meyers et al. (2012) found that “the difference between firstyear students and all other students [i.e. , those retained past the first year] was profound

FAQs

How does the project-based cornerstone course differ from the traditional course?

One course structure centers on an overarching project designing an event center, while the traditional sections use guest lectures, a textbook, and traditional laboratory activities to introduce civil engineering.

What outcomes improved for students in the project-based course?

Students gained more on creativity and design self-efficacy measures on an engineering-identity survey compared with traditionally taught students.

Why did mathematical self-efficacy decrease in the project-based section?

Pre/post comparisons showed a decrease in mathematical self-efficacy, which the study suggests may be explained by students receiving more contextualized engineering practice but less de-contextualized science and mathematics.

Oct 15, 2026

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