Engineering Students' Motivational Beliefs Development of a Scale Utilizing an Expectancy, Value, and Cost Framework

In the current study, researchers developed a 12-item instrument (Engineering Student Motivational Beliefs Scale; ESMBS) to assess engineering students' perceived expectancies, values, and costs of being an engineering major and pursuing an engineering career. The purpose of the paper is to present the ESMBS development process, including preliminary psychometric information. Researchers used Benson's model of construct validation, encompassing three phases, to guide the development and preliminary validation of ESMBS. The substantive phase included a thorough review of the literature to theoretically and empirically define the expectancy, value, and cost constructs within the context of undergraduate engineering. The structural phase consisted of psychometric investigations of the scale to examine internal consistencies. Finally, during the external phase, the relationship between the ESMBS constructs and student engagement was examined. The results from this preliminary instrument development study were mixed, showing the need for further examination of the measure.