interviews withfaculty and guest panelists. These soft skills (essential skills) development programming, alongwith addressing strengths and weakness were identified as some of the most influential fromstudent feedback.In addition to the auxiliary programming for S-STEM participants, developing a pipeline transferstudents from area community colleges was essential as part of the S-STEM scholars program.At present USM is committed to developing college level articulation agreements with thecommunity colleges. A number of articulation initiatives have been implemented at thedepartment levels within the STEM academic areas with 27 STEM related articulation agreements with area community colleges as well as two 2 others in the works that are STEM
, will use in co-op job Male College-Ready Join design teams. Great way to meet others and learn other things. Female Direct Admit Mentally step away from school if needed. If crying on math assignment, step away for a minute. If you manage your time well, taking time will be possible. Table 2 Activities for freshmen cohort, peer mentoring roles and homework assignments Semester Freshmen Activities Peer Mentor Role Fall 2019 Soft skills: study habits, time management, “One thing advice” note taking, and communication. Example of how skill used in
graduate student enteringthe work force. Employers in Canada reported positive correlations with employability traits ofgraduate students on the following characteristics: professional maturity, soft skills and problemsolving, continuous learning, academic achievement, generic skills like attention to detail,subject-based knowledge, professional manners and behavior, being responsive to feedback andthe potential employee’s willingness to work [20]. Therefore, the study found that “work-terms”or co-ops can provide a good opportunity for employers to assess the skills of potential workers.One report on a focus group that looked at the mobility of PhD graduate students studying in theUK considering a stint of mobility during their degree listed the
progressed I realized there was this need… that wasn’t being met. I realized if I went back to school I could better meet that need, that gap that I think that the Navy lacked.Teamwork and Reliance on OthersOne common theme in the interviews was the participants’ strengths at projects involvingteamwork, and their ability to acknowledge the need to sometimes rely on others. This threadwas seen most strongly in those who were officers or enlisted personnel in the armed forces,although it also was apparent to some degree in the civilian employees of the military.Daniel spoke about how he worked with other people, both in his military service and ingraduate school. I think it goes back to what I said about soft skills. I focus more on
them to pursue advanced study and related STEM careers.Program ActivitiesAs detailed in Table 1, during the pre-program phase, target institutions were contacted,applications solicited, REU student pairs selected, and projects assigned. Students used thetransition months to build their project-specific competency via assigned reading, so they couldhit the ground running. During the on-site period, major REU activities included a 40-hour/weekhands-on research project, capsulated technical sessions/labs, seminars, and college-levelprofessional development workshops and networking to develop soft skills. Student-pairsworked closely with their mentor and research group via individual and group meetings.Deliverables included a research plan and
, T. A. Kummer, and P. D. de Melo Godoy, “Improvements from a flipped classroom may simply be the fruits of active learning,” CBE Life Sciences Education, vol. 14, 2015.[22] Y.-C. Chen, K.-K. Fan, and K.-T. Fang, “Effect of flipped teaching on cognitive load level with mobile devices: The case of a graphic design course,” Sustainability, vol. 13, no. 13, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7092[23] S. McLean, S. M. Attardi, L. Faden, and M. Goldszmidt, “Flipped classrooms and student learning: not just surface gains,” Advances in physiology education, 2016.[24] A. Betti, P. Biderbost, and A. Garc´ıa Domonte, “Can active learning techniques simultaneously develop students’ hard and soft skills
sciencecommunication in the orientation sessions for the first two cohorts and worked with ouruniversity’s Graduate College to revive a half-semester course on this topic. In consultation withthe external advisory board, we also focused the first annual symposium, scheduled for April2020, to focus on communication and soft skill development.Modification with student leadership: The COVID-19 pandemic caused postponement of the firstsymposium to January 2021, conducted in a virtual format. Meanwhile, the second cohort joinedthe first one in Fall 2020 and the learning community moved mostly online (throughout the2020-21 academic year, our university was holding some face-to-face classes and activities,while many remained hybrid or virtual). We instituted working
. 402-7.[19] National Academy of Engineering of the National Academies, The engineer of 2020:Visions of engineering in the new century. 2004, Washington, DC: National Academies Press.[20] Clarke, M. "Addressing the soft skills crisis." Strategic HR Review, Vol. 15 no. 3, 2016,pp.137-139.[21] Tech Directors. "Career Directions," 10, 2003, pp. 22-23.[22] Dewey, J. How We Think. A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to theEducative Process (Revised ed.), Boston: D. C. Heath. 1933.[23] Daley, B. “Novice to expert: An exploration of how professionals learn.” Adult EducationQuarterly Vol. 49 no. 4, Summer, 1999, pp 133-147.[24] Kaufman, H. G. “Obsolescence and retraining of technical professionals: A researchperspective.” The Journal
they have going now is actually pretty good. I can't see it being any better. Interviewer: Again thinking about your experience in the workforce, is there anything that you feel your education could have given you more of to prepare you? Male Speaker: Yeah. I guess how to deal with people in the work place. Like, aside from doing your job, you also have to deal with people. I feel like there should have been more soft skills maybe that you educate people on. There's some stuff you don't really find in a book. I would say that.The preliminary social network analysis results provide some interesting data on the networksof
getting a job in industry upon graduation. As such, mostof the faculty interviewed wanted to tailor the URE to best help the students in getting a job inindustry.5) Faculty wanted the students to obtain applied engineering skills in their URE.6) The faculty interviewed saw both soft skill development (confidence, responsibility,leadership) and applied engineering skill development by the students that they have overseen inUREs.From the survey results and the interviews of the faculty, it can be seen that the preliminarydefinition of a successful URE developed from the student survey is generally in agreement withwhat faculty also perceive. One item that may be missing from the preliminary definition isdevelopment of self-sufficiency by the
STEM instructor must evolve beyond informationtransmission. In recent years, “the need to modify current paradigms, to reinforce not only thetechnical level of the instruction, but also to improve so-called soft skills, such as communicationskills, teamwork, leadership and so forth” 14 has been reinforced numerous times. Engineeringgraduates need development in creative thinking and problem-solving. In addition to an increasein the abilities and skills of the students, it is necessary to increase students’ interest in scienceand technology. All this is required while at the same time emphasizing the need for students tobe able to graduate in four years 14. This impressive list cannot be achieved in any single course.However, it is possible to
scholars and mentors, as well as provide tips to the students on what a meeting request could look like and how to proactively request a meeting with a mentor. Additionally, the ACCESS team will work on aligning students’ and mentors’ expectations.• Students expressed the need to improve their communication and interpersonal skills. Students felt that they could benefit from guidelines and suggestions on how to approach guest speakers, how to introduce themselves, how to ask a question, and how to “just talk to them normally”. The ACCESS team intends to organize, in collaboration with the West Virginia University’s Career Services Center, a seminar focused on the development of soft skills that would help students
withtools and services encompassing individualized mentoring, soft-skills training, researchopportunities, internship/COOP experiences, scholarships, and peer-mentor activities. Theseprogram elements were integrated into a learning community that joined the efforts of students,faculty, and university staff. After four years of program execution, salient results in the studygroup include retention rates above 97%, student persistence up to 98.8%, and graduationindexes four times higher than those observed in the general population. Moreover, quantifyingthe socioeconomic status performance gap within the group revealed reductions up to 50% withrespect to that observed in the general population.Throughout this work, results from the performance of a
planning for the worst case scenarios, andthe use of some analytical software such as NVivo. In addition to these hard skills, someparticipants also referred to soft skills they had gained during their training. Some examples theyprovided were related to working with others in a team and communication skills. For instance,one participant reported: I feel like I'm better at communicating things. Almost like I have a better vocabulary. I have better communication skills because of the institute. I'm trying to think of like specific things, having the social reality was really nice, being able to show that to my students, being able up to get them to kind of wrap their head around what that looks like and what that means
continual process engaged in by participants – students, educators, and professionals10.Therefore, effective interventions in engineering can impact not only the future generation ofengineers, but the current one as well.NormativityThere are perceptions of a normative culture within engineering which dictates, firstly, thatengineers and engineering is a highly technical field that does not focus on or value the socialaspects of one's life. This false dichotomy of “social skills” versus “technical skills” withinengineering leads to a valuing of technical prowess and a devaluing of social skills (oftenlabeled, pejoratively, as “soft skills”) which many students who have non-normative identitiesbring to the table. This dualism of skills is a false
content. Further, an increase inproficiency in multidisciplinary design teams was sought by immersing students in alternateproblem-solving strategies of their peers, while simultaneously encouraging the development ofteam interaction and other soft skills. The primary objective of DMTL is to provide students andinstructors with an effective technological and pedagogical framework for use during large groupinstructional sessions. In addition to the benefits to the learner, DMTL provides the instructorwith a dynamic view of the learning process, student conceptualizations of content, andchallenges associated with specific topics. This information allows the instructor to intervene andreiterate, elaborate, and reinforce concepts that require
through, but I felt experience-wise, [the internship project] forced me to really think out of the box and really grow in terms of being more multidisciplinary and learn to hone my soft skills, like communication. And in general, just other technical skills. So I think those really help... I think it was more outside of education.”Evelyn mentioned how her internship project allowed her to navigate more ambiguous problemsand options where there isn’t one right way to solve the problem, or an easy or existing solution,unlike her experience at times within curricular contexts.Evelyn, in hindsight, wished she would have asked more critical questions in the beginning ofher project to get a better understanding of who will be
instruction canfoster the development of soft skills critical to success in the work place (Stohlman et al., 2011).For example, integrated ETS instruction promotes collaboration, compromise, problem solving,and communication (Hmelo-Silver, 2004; Stohlman et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2013). These softskills are becoming increasingly important to employers (Jones et al., 2017; Mardis et al., 2018;Patacsil & Tablatin, 2017).Technology and EngineeringTechnology integration has been encouraged for decades within general science education (e.g.,Bull & Bell, 2008; Hilton & Honey, 2011) and more recently within the engineeringopportunities teachers integrate into their science instruction (e.g., Wang et al., 2011, Maeng &Gonczi, 2020
has been known to significantly increase success, retention, and graduationrates. We noticed the differences in the level of preparedness and its influence on the student’sperception of their journey. We also explored the influence of soft skills, outlook, scholarlyattributes, and support on the perception of the journey through the program. Although ourparticipants have reported that they did not perceive any overt sexism or racism, we present thefindings correlated with gender and race/ethnicity.Our future work will include fine-tuning the protocol to explore intersectionality and reflect uponthe situations where the students might feel minoritized. Additionally, the students in the futurestudy will be purposefully selected to examine