The PEER Collaborative: Supporting Engineering Education Research Faculty with Near-peer Mentoring Unconference Workshops
- Conference
- Location
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Indianapolis, Indiana
- Publication Date
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June 15, 2014
- Start Date
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June 15, 2014
- End Date
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June 18, 2014
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Continuing Professional Development
- Page Count
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19
- Page Numbers
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24.1237.1 - 24.1237.19
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--23170
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/23170
- Download Count
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603
Paper Authors
Alice L. Pawley
Purdue University, West Lafayette
orcid.org/0000-0001-9117-4855
Alice L. Pawley is an associate professor in the School of Engineering Education with affiliations with the Women's Studies Program and Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. She has a B.Eng. in chemical engineering (with distinction) from McGill University, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering with a Ph.D. minor in women's studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She runs the Feminist Research in Engineering Education (FREE, formerly RIFE) group, whose diverse projects and group members are described at the website http://feministengineering.org/. She can be contacted by email at apawley@purdue.edu.
Adam R. Carberry
Arizona State University
orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-7060
Adam R. Carberry, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University in the Fulton Schools of Engineering. He earned a B.S. in Materials Science Engineering from Alfred University, and received his M.S. and Ph.D., both from Tufts University, in Chemistry and Engineering Education respectively. Dr. Carberry has been a member of PEER since the first workshop held in 2011.
Monica E. Cardella
Purdue University, West Lafayette
orcid.org/0000-0002-4229-6183
Maria-Isabel Carnasciali
University of New Haven
orcid.org/0000-0001-5887-0744
Maria-Isabel Camasciali is Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Tagliatela School of Engineering, University of New Haven, CT. She obtained her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2008. She received her Bachelors of Engineering from MIT in 2000. Current engineering education research focuses on understanding the nontraditional student experiences, motivations, and identity development. Other research interests involve validation of
CFD models for aerospace applications as well as optimizing efficiency of thermal-fluid systems.
Shanna R. Daly
University of Michigan
orcid.org/0000-0002-4698-2973
Jenna L. Gorlewicz Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
Jenna L. Gorlewicz received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (Edwardsville, IL) in 2008, before pursuing her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University, where she worked in the Medical and Electromechanical Design (MED) Laboratory. At Vanderbilt, she was a National Science Foundation Fellow and a Vanderbilt Educational Research fellow. Jenna then returned to her alma mater, SIUE, as a faculty member in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department in Fall 2013. Her research interests are in the design and assessment of haptic devices, human-machine interfaces, and robotic systems, with applications in both education and medicine.
Geoffrey L. Herman
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
orcid.org/0000-0002-9501-2295
Dr. Geoffrey L. Herman is a visiting assistant professor with the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Mavis Future Faculty Fellow and conducted postdoctoral research with Ruth Streveler in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. His research interests include creating systems for sustainable improvement in engineering education, promoting intrinsic motivation in the classroom, conceptual change and development in engineering students, and change in faculty beliefs about teaching and learning. He is a recipient of the 2011 ASEE Educational Research and Methods Division Apprentice Faculty Grant. He helps steer the College of Engineering Dean’s Strategic Instructional Initiatives Program and helps direct the Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education at the University of Illinois.
Morgan M. Hynes Purdue University, West Lafayette
Dr. Morgan Hynes is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering Education (both at Tufts University). In his research, Hynes explores the use of engineering to integrate academic subjects in K-12 classrooms. From close observations of classroom teaching and learning, he studies how students come to understand what engineering is and how learners conceptualize and engage in engineering and design. Specific research interests include design metacognition among learners of all ages; the knowledge base for teaching K-12 STEM through engineering; broadening the contexts of engineering activities to broaden participation and engagement; and teaching engineering. He has worked with a number of Boston Public Schools in integrating engineering activities into their curriculum.
Shawn S. Jordan
Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus
orcid.org/0000-0002-1639-779X
Nadia N. Kellam University of Georgia
Nadia Kellam, Associate Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia, is co-director of the interdisciplinary engineering education research CLUSTER. In her research, she is interested in understanding how engineering students develop their professional identity, the role of emotion in student learning, and synergistic learning. She designed the environmental engineering synthesis and design studios and is now developing the design spine for the new mechanical engineering program. She is engaged in mentoring early career faculty and a recent research project uncovers the narratives of exemplar engineering faculty that have successfully transitioned to student-centered teaching strategies.
Micah Lande Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus
Matthew A. Verleger Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ., Daytona Beach
Matthew Verleger is Assistant Professor in Freshman Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He has a BS in Computer Engineering, an MS in Agricultural & Biological Engineering, and a PhD in Engineering Education, all from Purdue University. Prior to joining the Embry-Riddle faculty, he spent two years as an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Utah State University. His research interests include Model-Eliciting Activities, online learning, and the development of software tools to facilitate student learning.
Dazhi Yang Boise State University
Dazhi Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Technology Department at Boise State University. Prior to coming to Boise State, she was a postdoctoral researcher and instructional designer in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her current research focuses on instructional strategies and online course design techniques for STEM subject areas, especially engineering and science; instructional strategies for teaching difficult and complex science and engineering concepts with the assistance of technology; and teacher education and professional development. Due to her interest and background in teacher education, Dr. Yang designed, developed and coordinated the K-12 Online Teaching Endorsement Program at Boise State. Dr. Yang was a featured researcher of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) International Convention and the Young Researcher Award recipient from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Recently she also received the Effective Practice Award (in online and eLearning) from the Sloan-Consortium.
Abstract
The PEER Collaborative: Supporting engineering education research faculty with near-peer mentoring unconference workshopsThe PEER (“Pine mountain Engineering Education Research”) Collaborative National Networkis a national peer mentoring network for early career tenure-track or mid-career tenured facultywho focus on doing engineering education research. The PEER network hosted two NSF-funded,collaboratively designed peer mentoring workshops for tenure-track and recently tenuredengineering education faculty members in August 2011 and June 2013. Twenty-four participantsconsidered “near peers” – faculty and staff from engineering education, engineering, education,and design programs – attended the first workshop and 18 attended the second workshop.Applications were required of all participants to ensure that all attendees considered themselvesprimarily evaluated based on engineering education research productivity.The first workshop provided approximately 20 hours of professional development and mentoringbroken down over a day and a half, while the second workshop provided approximately 8 hoursover the course of a day. The workshops were designed to be a unique experience driven byparticipants’ needs. Topics discussed ranged from professional development for both tenure-track and tenured faculty, developing reading, writing and publication strategies, discussing thedevelopment of engineering education research as a field, mentoring students, balancing workand family life, and other issues. The workshops included guided activities, such as the use ofvisual images as a starting point for discussing participants’ roles within engineering educationand their institutions. The conversations were governed by the “law of two feet,” borrowed fromunconference structures: if participants found themselves neither learning nor contributing toothers’ learning, they were obliged to find somewhere else where they could learn or contribute.Participants were also encouraged to spend their time productively even if that meant leaving amain topic discussion to meet with people for smaller discussions.The first workshop was evaluated using an internal assessment and an external evaluator.Internal assessment was the same survey distributed twice: 1) immediately after the completionof the workshop and 2) as a follow-up two months later. The external evaluator attended sessionsand observed conversations, serving as the workshop “storyteller.” The second workshop madeuse of a post-workshop participant survey focused on workshop gains and how to make thecommunity and the PEER workshop program sustainable.This paper will discuss the development, logistics, and outcomes of the workshops built around acommunity of practice framework. Data from internal and external evaluations will be presentedto provide insights into what worked and what needs further development. We will provideadditional insights via vignettes from participants reflecting on the PEER workshops and effectsthe PEER events had on their personal and professional lives. Participant vignettes address boththe broader experiences related to PEER as well as specific reactions and perspectives regardingitems of interest in the evaluation data. The paper will conclude with a discussion on the futureof PEER (and potential spin-off groups from the PEER cohorts), a discussion of theenhancements and changes that will be made in future workshops, and recommendations forother organizers about developing successful “near peer” groups to address specific communityneeds.
Pawley, A. L., & Carberry, A. R., & Cardella, M. E., & Carnasciali, M., & Daly, S. R., & Gorlewicz, J. L., & Herman, G. L., & Hynes, M. M., & Jordan, S. S., & Kellam, N. N., & Lande, M., & Verleger, M. A., & Yang, D. (2014, June), The PEER Collaborative: Supporting Engineering Education Research Faculty with Near-peer Mentoring Unconference Workshops Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--23170
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