. Therefore,researchers suggest that guided and scaffolding peer reviews approach has a positive impact ondeveloping engineering students’ technical writing skills in lab courses [11], [12]. In addition,Geisler [15] claimed that the transition from novice to expert is mediated by academic literacy1 This project was funded by a University of Michigan Enhancing Engineering Education Grant.practices. Thus, many researchers developed new curricula using the Writing in Disciplines(WID) approach to integrate technical writing into engineering lab courses [13], [16], [17].Engineering education scholars connect engineering thinking with the teaching of lab-intensivecourses. Wolff [18] suggested engineering educators should explicitly teach students about
interdependence among the group members.At this point in the term, teams may not have fully established norms or agreed oncommunication methods.Teams with students requiring accommodations had nearly double the number of comments oncommunication challenges and poor team dynamics compared to their peers. One student noted,“I think we could probably have more communication between members while writing thereport. We’ve been dividing and conquering sections of the lab report, but I think a lot of thestuff should be more cooperative in nature amongst sections.”when reflecting on early struggles. Another mentioned:“My group mates stopped working at about 8:30 pm on Friday night when the report was due.The report was not done. I believe they think they had
Paper ID #47975Exploring the Role of Peer and Faculty Interactions in Shaping the Sense ofBelonging among International Graduate Engineering Students (IGES) at anHBCUTolulope Iyanuoluwa Abiri, Morgan State University Tolulope Abiri is a graduate student in Civil Engineering at Morgan State University, where he also serves as a Research Assistant. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA). His current research focuses on the sustainability and resilience of transportation infrastructure in the face of sea level rise, with a particular emphasis on coastal
Paper ID #43142Board 115: Examining Engineering Students’ Gender and Racial Effects inCollege Course Team Peer Assessment: A Quantitative Intersectional ApproachMiss Xiaping Li, University of Michigan Xiaping Li is a Ph.D. candidate in Engineering Education Research at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include faculty development and change, neurodiverse college student learning experiences and outcomes, international students in engineering, and cognitive sciences. She holds a B.S. in Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering and an M.S. in Geological Sciences.Dr. Robin Fowler, University of Michigan
thesis significantly transformed from these reciprocities. Writinggroups such as these have been shown to create a “community of discursive social practice” thatsupports peer learning and peer review (Maher et al., 2008, p. 263). Through this process ofcollective learning via dialogue and relationships, I explored and built on greater complexitiesand theories in my final thesis than I would have been able to achieve as an individual. But itwent beyond the theories, I also gained confidence in being able to do this paradigm shiftingwork with others—in knowing that, regardless of the pushback and the number of uphill battles Ihad to fight, that I wasn’t alone in this work.And an amazing thing happened: I began to learn through writing. I never
. ResultsNonbinary Identity Supports FrameworkInterviews revealed how nonbinary STEM graduate students utilized their social networks(consisting of TNBGNC, cis and nonbinary alters) to obtain identity-based expressive support inthe form of validating their gender identity and encouraging them to persist in their graduatestudies, as well as instrumental support in the form of advice on navigating STEM environments,writing articles, and preparing for conferences. The nature of support that they received wasdistinctly different from cisgender alters (faculty and peers) and nonbinary alters (peers). In thefollowing paragraphs, we depict how participants described receiving identity-based support(i.e., affirmation, advocacy, insider knowledge, and kinship) from
prior experience in design and the UCD process. In suchinstances, working with an ideation tool to generate blue sky ideas and build upon some or ruleout others [43] augmented the learning experience and paved the way for them to come up withthe design ideas they would initially use. For students who might not have had much experiencewith the UCD process prior to C1, ChatGPT served as a tool for providing them equitable accesssuch that they could keep up with their more experienced peers and not fall behind the class. Additionally, ChatGPT was used as a writing assistant by students, especially in C2, whopossibly were struggling with the heavy writing load that the course provided. Such a writingload is uncommon within the courses in our
Black, can cause mental and emotional harm[11]. Minoritized students are placed in situations in which they have to listen to peers askquestions about their very humanity and outdated misassumptions about intelligence, athleticprowess, and laziness, among others. The same can be said for trans and queer students,immigrants and children of immigrants, students with disabilities, and others. It is finding simpleways to address this normalization of social violence that occurs in DEIA research and educationspaces, along with the integration of what people consider “common” disabilityaccommodations, that we seek to discuss via curriculum and training methods for the remainderof this paper.Outline of ProgramAt the time of writing, the BASE Camp
learners’ experiences relative to theirneurotypical peers. The pilot findings guided evidence-based revisions, and a refined survey was deployed inFall 2024. From that survey’s respondents, STEM majors who identify as neurodivergent were invited toparticipate in interviews about their experiences transitioning to online learning during and after the COVID-19pandemic. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was secured for this work-in-progress study, andparticipant interviews are underway at the time of writing. In these interviews, participants describe theirexperiences with remote learning, emphasizing the challenges encountered and adaptive strategies employedthroughout the transition from in-person to online education. Aligned with the
questions to see what kinds of disabilities you want to include in your research. What populations of students do you want to investigate? What circumstances? 3. Disabled people are often asked to do work for less compensation than their able-bodied peers (e.g. there is a lower minimum wage for workers with disabilities [61]). Compensate your participants. If you don’t have funding to pay participants, what other ways can you engage in reciprocity with them? Can you help them change some institutional structures? Can you write them letters of recommendation? There are many ways to show participants you value their time and energy. 4. Many disabled students have negative experiences talking to faculty about
improve the field’s diversity, adaptability, and competitiveness, the Year of Impact on Racial Equity is focused on creating organizational change to address the culture, policies, and racial and ethnic representation within engineering student organizations, colleges of engineering, and pre-college outreach efforts. These 12 months will move us beyond action to focus on the impact of the actions we take. We expect that actions in these domains will result in three concrete forms of impact: (1) empowered engineering student organizations, which will make engineering education more inclusive at the level of peer-to-peer interactions; (2) actionable organizational policies and effective practices
in college and beyond. The EcologicalValidation Model of Student Success and its educational practices reflecting the social evolutionframed this study. Information was collected through surveys and interviews from three studentcohorts. The findings revealed how this culturally asset-based program reinforced the identity ofstudents as Hispanics by centering culture and community aspects that students were familiarwith, promoted teamwork with peers as a strategy to make learning better situated in theirinterest to support each other, and contributed to creating a research space where students feltintegrated, included, and valued considering who they were or represent. Programs that center onstudent asset-based features and pedagogical
students.BackgroundIt is well established that teaching undergraduate students, particularly engineering students, howto work in teams is important [7], [8], difficult [9], and worth doing because students canimprove [10]. Teamwork assessment tools like CATME (a web-based peer evaluation tool foundat catme.org) can help instructors identify teaming problems amongst students [11], [12].Challenges remain, however, for instructors of large courses who want to address such problemsin getting enough of the right kind of information to effectively intervene to help studentsimprove their teamwork skills, and then knowing how best to coach teams exhibiting evidence ofdysfunction.Researchers have established the outsized burden that minoritized teammates carry
exclusionary learning environments and curricula, lack of facultymentorship and role models, and lack of a supportive peer group (see [4]-[6] research findings onthese topics). For these reasons, there is a steep decline in the number of Black and Hispanicstudents graduating with a STEM degree from Baccalaureate institutions [7]. Classroom culture is shown to have a significant impact on the success of Black andHispanic students in higher education and in STEM in particular. Specifically, when Black andHispanic students feel like they have learning and supportive spaces to develop their STEMidentities, they are more likely than their peers who do not have access to such spaces toacademic persist in the STEM field [8]. However, Black and
technical writing skills, which are often not demonstrated in traditional exams. We emphasized developing connections that can facilitate belonging. We focused on buildingconnections between students and four other factors: the professor, the course content, the peers,and the ChemBE major. Connection between students and the professor can be fostered throughthe professor’s display of care and support [17]. Understanding the relevance of the courseworkthrough real-world applications can promote connections with the course content and the major.Participating in cooperative learning can provide opportunities to interact with peers and facilitatepeer connections.Supportive Classroom in Cell Biology for Engineers During the course introduction, the
,these processes are determined by external processes, i.e. environmental and behavioralinfluences, such as the learning climate (the environmental factors), and encouragementfrom a teacher or peer and positive outcomes from previous learning (the socialconversion factors); and third these three processes are reciprocal. Reciprocality does notequal symmetrical or bidirectional influences. Rather, it stresses: (1) one can use personalprocesses to ‘strategically regulate behavior and the immediate learning environment’,where the feedback can in turn influence the person’s covert process[14]; (2) theinfluences of externally social experiences and environments are important to internallypersonal processes[15]; and (3) ‘Behavior is, therefore, a
particular topic and create new knowledge (Walther et al., 2017). We utilize 4this approach to examine the social, cultural, and political factors that impact the wellness ofinternational students in graduate education.ParticipantsThis study has a total of three participants, who also double as the authors of the paper. They areall Women of Color and international students in a PhD program at Southwestern HSI Universityin the U.S.ProcedureThe process began with each author writing a two-page reflection addressing the prompt: Write areflection on how social, cultural, and political factors affect your overall experiences andwell-being as an international
emotional and instrumental support (see [12] - [15]). However,much of this research generalizes the larger LGBTQ+ experience and relies on establishedframeworks utilized in the STEM and engineering education space (e.g., queer theory, socialcapital theory). Therefore, outside of a select few exceptions (see [16], [17]), the research oftrans scholars in trans studies has seldom been utilized to understand the lived experiences of ourTNBGNC peers in STEM. We believe that the use of trans studies frameworks andmethodologies in STEM and engineering education research with the TNBGNC community canenrich current discourse by fostering a deeper understanding of the transgender experience andcreate pathways to transform educational practice.If we, as
about us without us. Havingneurodivergent and neurotypical researchers collaborating on work focusing on neurodivergencehas been an exciting and effective way to explore our biases and subjectivities.Literature ReviewThere is a shortage of thorough research on the implications of neurodiversity in highereducation; however, research is fertile on the experiences of neurodivergent students in primaryand secondary school. Neurodivergent learners are often framed in unfavorable comparison totheir neurotypical peers, e.g., they struggle to focus in class, keep their possessions organized,follow instructions, and develop proficient writing skills related to their neurotypical peers [4].Of course, not all people who identify as neurodivergent learners
disagreed nor agreed or strongly disagreed that theyhad a positive relationship with their research professor/mentor. Both ND and NT participantsresponded similarly to having laboratory peers who collaborate and support each other(Figure 3B). It is well documented that academia has an ableist problem; however, our dataindicate that ND students feel supported by their peers [4]. This is a very positive finding wheremost studies highlight the negative experiences of ND students [22].Figure 2: Research Demographics related to all participants (96 participants) separating outthe type of research conducted and whether the research was volunteer, credit-bearing, or paid.Neurodivergent participants had a larger percentage indicated strongly agree or agree
,well-being, and lives of graduate students. It can support us in interrupting harmful interpersonal practicesand modeling supportive practices.ApproachData was collected through two phases of exploratory semi-structured qualitative interviews with sevenparticipants under the University of Colorado Boulder IRB protocol 21-0217. The participants andmethods are fully discussed in Beardmore [6]. Participants included STEM graduate students whoself-identified as being disabled or having one or more disabilities. This paper does not present the resultsin ordinary prose, that is, writing that follows a basic grammatical structure organized into sentences andparagraphs [7]. Instead, it presents an amalgamation of the participants' paraphrased quotes
and minority protégés participating in the LouisStokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program in Science, Technology,Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) across four different universities within a statewideuniversity system, in the United States of America, to learn the following regarding mentoringrelationships for minority STEM students: (1) how students respond to ideas and projects, (2)how students conquer challenges and respond to setbacks, (3) how students set and pursue theiracademic goals, (4) how students describe their undergraduate research mentoring relationshipwith peers and professors, (5) how students maintain their focus in a professional developmentprogram such as LSAMP, (6) how students characterize and describe
enactment of liberatory pedagogy is discussed through the perspectives of JEDIalumni.2. Literature ReviewThis section includes a review of literature focused efforts that seek to improve the experiencesof marginalized undergraduate engineering students or support them in creating change in theirlocal university or community context.2.1. Student Support ProgramsPrevious scholarship indicates that interventions offered by diversity engineering programs(DEPs) and minority engineering programs (MEPs) can improve marginalized students’undergraduate experience [1]. In particular, both faculty and peer mentorship programs forhistorically oppressed students have been identified as powerful support mechanisms inundergraduate engineering education [2
? Concepts Question 2: What do you think about the examples Effectiveness of Peer Collaboration and solved in class collectively as group? Engagement Question 3: What is your opinion on the instructor Increased Understanding and Confidence using visual supplements when solving problems? Question 4: What do you think about the rigor of Embracing the Challenge and Valuing this course compared to others? Rigor Question 5: What did this class teach you about Increased Knowledge of Dynamic Nature Engineering? of EngineeringCollectively, the themes that emerged in the study provide insight into students’ experiences withthe approaches and technique implemented by the
Students; Engineering1 IntroductionStudents undergo various experiences during their college years that influence and shape theiridentities. Negative interactions within those experiences can affect the mental functioning andwellbeing of the students. These negative experiences result in high levels of distress that maynot be clearly visible to peers or faculty but can have significant impacts within their collegiatechoices. Available research indicates that approximately 50% of students display alarming levelsof stress, anxiety, and depression [1], [2]. This statistic is an indicator of a mental health crisisthat could be ravaging higher education institutions. Recent engineering education research(EER
major for her. In engineering, where the cultural perspective is that a stereotypical student is white and male, students often have the unconscious bias that gives white, male students the benefit of the doubt, assuming they are smart and experienced. Socially, Black and brown women are stereotyped as angry or loud. Jamie’s awareness of this stereotype makes her think twice about speaking up. Additionally, disciplinary power also makes her reconsider speaking up— engineering courses are built on teamwork. If she were to speak up and was not supported by her peers because they did not notice anything happening, and her professor mentioned that she should just learn to deal with team dynamics, she
relevant to the coursetopic but focus discussion on societal impact.Nevertheless, implementing social justice into courses and curriculum cannot be done in avacuum. The classroom climate can dictate whether these changes will be successful or not.There are some strategies that can help in cultivating the environment necessary for productiveengagement with social justice concepts. Inclusive teaching practices can set the tone forconversations about ARDEI in the classroom. Incorporating strategies such as Universal Designfor Learning (UDL), diverse perspectives and course materials, and peer learning activities helpmake the classroom climate accessible to all learners [24]. In addition, having instructorsreflecting on their own identities and biases
present study, we explore the self-reportedsubjective experiences of four of the students (Table 1, one student declined to be interviewed),including how each saw their own contributions in the group discussion and the uncertainties thatthey wrestled with. Data sources include video of the in-class discussion and stimulated recallinterviews in which the students were shown clips of the video and asked questions like whatstood out to them about their group’s work on the task, to what extent they agreed with theirteammates’ ideas, and how comfortable and engaged they felt.Data analysis procedures included interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) of therecorded discussion, with memo writing and discussion of the tentative findings in
Paper ID #48021Using student-led case studies in engineering to build cultural awareness,self-knowledge, and ethical engagementKelsey McLendon, University of Michigan Kelsey McLendon is a Lecturer in the Program in Technical Communication in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. Her research interests are technical writing, social and emotional learning, and DEIJ in engineering education.Dr. Katie Snyder, University of Michigan Dr. Snyder is a lecturer in the Program in Technical Communication at the University of Michigan. She teaches writing and presentation strategies to students in the College of
spacesParticipants discussed experiencing exclusionary and harmful encounters and practices in STEMhigher education and entrepreneurial spaces. Dr. Wu noted, “As a woman, as a minority, there'salways so many different challenges that's there. It's always there, it’s always there.” One ofthese challenges was not having access to supportive interpersonal relationships in theiruniversities and academic departments. Dr. J remarked, “I came to [university] recognizing that no one's going to help you, Dr. J, so you'd better write the papers, and you'd better write the proposal. That's exactly what I did, I wrote the papers. I wrote the proposals. I was the PI. I was the first author on most of my papers. People were not saying, "Oh Dr. J