Relationship between Self-efficacy, Satisfaction and Academic Outcome of Korean Design Major Students

Background Design critique in an educational setting is a communicative interaction between an instructor and students, sometimes with invited professionals through formal and informal feedback. Numerous design educators have investigated how students perceive the learning benefits of critiquing. Although education researchers have found that self-efficacy is one of the key factors in academic performance, researchers in design education rarely conducted studies on how self-efficacy influences students’ grades as academic outcomes. Thus, in this paper, we aim to quantitatively investigate how efficacies in design education relate with academic outcomes and students’ satisfaction from various aspects. Methods To find the relationship between efficacy in design studios and grades in design projects, we used three scales developed by Gaffney: Critique Self-efficacy, Studio Self-efficacy, and Design Communication Competence. We surveyed forty-four design students at K University from May 2016 to June 2016. An SPSS Statistics software was used to analyze the survey results. To conduct this analysis, we used bivariate correlation analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, and factor analysis. Result First, students’ efficacy predicted their anticipated grades, but not their final letter grades. In contrast, final letter grades are marginally correlated with Studio Self-efficacy. Second, satisfaction in critique activities positively correlates with Critique Self-efficacy, Studio Self-efficacy, and Design Communication Competence. However, this satisfaction did not predict final letter grades either. Lastly, satisfaction with Final Critique was more strongly correlated with both anticipated letter grades and final letter grades than satisfaction with Team Critique. Conclusion This study would help Korean design educators who are utilizing a critiquing method to understand their students’ efficacy and competence and how the factors relate with academic outcome.