예비 엔지니어의 공학적 마인드셋과 자기주도성, 교육과정 적합성, 진로결과기대 및 전공학습몰입의 구조적 관계

The Structural Relationship among Self-Directedness, Curriculum Relevance, Career Outcome Expectation, Major Learning Engagement, and the Engineering Mindset of Prospective Engineers

This study investigates the structural relationships among self-directedness, curriculum relevance, career outcome expectation, major learning engagement, and the engineering mindset of prospective engineers. Using proportional stratified sampling, 450 students enrolled in accredited engineering education programs in South Korea were surveyed, and 402 valid responses were analyzed after screening for invalid, inattentive, and outlier cases. Structural equation modeling conducted with SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 7 demonstrated acceptable model fit and revealed that all four antecedent variables, self-directedness, curriculum relevance, career outcome expectation, and major learning engagement, had significant direct effects on engineering mindset. Among these antecedents, career outcome expectation and major learning engagement additionally exhibited significant single and sequential mediation effects, serving as key mechanisms that transmit the influence of self-directedness and curriculum relevance to engineering mindset. These findings indicate that both direct and mediated pathways collectively shape how prospective engineers develop an engineering mindset. Based on the identified structural relationships, this study offers meaningful implications for engineering talent development by highlighting the roles of self-directedness, curriculum relevance, and major learning engagement in fostering an engineering mindset.