Assessing Self-Efficacy Growth in Innovation Skills Using a Developmental Perspective

Abstract

Future economic projections forecast the need for workers to pivot between professions with significantly different skill sets (National Science Board, 2020; World Economic Forum, 2020). Thus, educators need to prepare all students for imminent workforce pivoting through pedagogy that promotes the development of transferable skills (NASEM, 2021). In the STEM education landscape, traditional assessments have lacked alignment to skills-based learning outcomes, consequently leading to sparse measurement in student self-perceptions of skill development (Maric et al., 2023; NASEM, 2018). Assessment of such skills requires measurement practices that capture student development in ways beyond standard assessments of disciplinary knowledge (NASEM, 2021). Here, we present the application of a comprehensive assessment framework that emphasizes a developmental perspective and provides meaningful interpretations of student perceptions relative to intended growth outcomes. We utilized this framework to measure the affective domain of student development, specifically student self-perceptions of Innovation Skills as they participated in a course called Bioinspired Design. Students worked in interdisciplinary teams to translate authentic scientific discoveries from primary literature into societally beneficial bioinspired designs. We hypothesized that students would self-report growth in Innovation Skills as a result of this course and we tested this through a survey-based methodology analyzed by item response theory. Our results showed approximately one standard deviation of growth between the pre and post samples with a large effect size. Overall, we show how the use of a comprehensive assessment framework can empower educators in measuring complex 21st century skills. This framework can be utilized across subject and course contexts to develop psychometrically robust assessments of skills-based constructs essential for advancing undergraduate STEM education.