Indicators of Engineering Students’ Academic Performance: A Gender-Based Study

Academic performance of engineering students continues to receive attention in the literature. However, the literature lacks studies that investigate the simultaneous relationship between students’ systems thinking (ST) skills, and Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality traits and proactive personality scale, and their potential impact on academic performance across gender. Three established instruments, namely, ST skills instrument with seven dimensions, FFM traits with five dimensions, and proactive personality with one dimension, were administrated for data collection. A web-based cross-sectional survey using Qualtrics was developed to gather data from engineering students. To show the prediction power of the ST skills, FFM traits, and proactive personality on the academic performance of engineering students, Multiple Group Structural Analysis was applied. The study findings show how key skills and characteristics impact engineering students’ academic performance and also how gender moderates these relationships. This study can provide important implications and contributions to engineering education and complex systems bodies of knowledge. First, the study will provide a better understanding of engineering students’ academic performance across gender. This intent is to help educators, teachers, mentors, college authorities, and other involved parties to understand students’ individual differences for a better training and guidance environment. Second, a closer look at the level of systemic thinking and its connection with FFM traits and proactive personality would assist in understanding engineering students’ skillset better in the domain of complex systems.