Board 257: Development and Initial Outcomes of an NSF RIEF Project in Understanding Teamwork Experience and its Linkage to Engineering Identity of Diverse Students

Yiyi Wang; Stephanie Claussen; Xiaorong Zhang; Fatemeh Khalkhal

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42703
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42703
Download Count: 61

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Paper Authors

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Yiyi Wang

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Yiyi Wang is an assistant professor of civil engineering at San Francisco State University. In addition to engineering education, her research also focuses on the nexus between mapping, information technology, and transportation and has published in Accident Analysis & Prevention, Journal of Transportation Geography, and Annuals of Regional Science. She served on the Transportation Research Board (TRB) ABJ80 Statistical Analysis committee and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) panel. She advises the student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at SFSU.

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Stephanie Claussen San Francisco State University

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Stephanie Claussen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University. She previously spent eight years as a Teaching Professor in the Engineering, Design, and Society Division and the Electrical Engineering Departmen

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Xiaorong Zhang San Francisco State University

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Xiaorong Zhang received the B.S. degree in computer science from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, in 2006, the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering from University of Rhode Island, Kingston, in 2009 and 2013 respectivel

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Fatemeh Khalkhal

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Dr. Khalkhal is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at San Francisco State University (a primarily undergraduate and Hispanic-serving Institution). Her research experience is in developing structure-property relationships in complex fluids and polymer composites, broadening the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering, and understanding the relationship between teamwork experience and team disagreements in the formation of engineering identity among diverse students.

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Abstract

Engineering identity is a crucial element in the formation of engineering students. It represents how strongly a student identifies with being an engineer and indicates persistence and retention in engineering. Many factors influence the development of an engineering identity; for example, students from diverse backgrounds (transfer, first-generation, one with a disability, female, or minority students) may face challenges in performance expectations, resource access, and peer interactions. Such experiences can hamper their engineering identity development, retention, and advancement in engineering. These challenges also manifest in engineering teamwork, where students are expected to apply and acquire engineering skills, assert themselves, and navigate unfamiliar team dynamics.

Many engineering education studies have stressed the importance of teamwork training in undergraduate engineering education. They have investigated how teamwork experiences promote learning, technical communication, metacognitive ability, social-technical thinking, and other skills. However, little is known about how teamwork informs or is informed by students’ engineering identities. Understanding the connection between teamwork and the engineering identity of diverse students, especially among underrepresented groups, enables instructors to create inclusive teaching and learning environments. Such learning environments improve student performance and promote interest and recognition, which are crucial to a student’s professional formation.

Funded by the Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF) program of the National Science Foundation, our project aims to (1) depict teamwork experience through the behaviors of and disagreements between team members in a highly diverse engineering student population at a four-year Hispanic Serving Institution;. and (2) understand how teamwork experience informs students’ engineering identities using a mixed-methods approach. During the first year of the project, the research team designed a survey instrument and an interview protocol to measure students’ engineering identity and teamwork experiences. Survey and interview data has been collected from 18 engineering classes. Our mixed-methods approach consisted of quantitative and qualitative methods. This paper summarizes the preliminary results and initial findings of this study.

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Wang, Y., & Claussen, S., & Zhang, X., & Khalkhal, F. (2023, June), Board 257: Development and Initial Outcomes of an NSF RIEF Project in Understanding Teamwork Experience and its Linkage to Engineering Identity of Diverse Students Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42703

TY - CPAPER
AB - Engineering identity is a crucial element in the formation of engineering students. It represents how strongly a student identifies with being an engineer and indicates persistence and retention in engineering. Many factors influence the development of an engineering identity; for example, students from diverse backgrounds (transfer, first-generation, one with a disability, female, or minority students) may face challenges in performance expectations, resource access, and peer interactions. Such experiences can hamper their engineering identity development, retention, and advancement in engineering. These challenges also manifest in engineering teamwork, where students are expected to apply and acquire engineering skills, assert themselves, and navigate unfamiliar team dynamics.

Many engineering education studies have stressed the importance of teamwork training in undergraduate engineering education. They have investigated how teamwork experiences promote learning, technical communication, metacognitive ability, social-technical thinking, and other skills. However, little is known about how teamwork informs or is informed by students’ engineering identities. Understanding the connection between teamwork and the engineering identity of diverse students, especially among underrepresented groups, enables instructors to create inclusive teaching and learning environments. Such learning environments improve student performance and promote interest and recognition, which are crucial to a student’s professional formation.

Funded by the Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF) program of the National Science Foundation, our project aims to (1) depict teamwork experience through the behaviors of and disagreements between team members in a highly diverse engineering student population at a four-year Hispanic Serving Institution;. and (2) understand how teamwork experience informs students’ engineering identities using a mixed-methods approach. During the first year of the project, the research team designed a survey instrument and an interview protocol to measure students’ engineering identity and teamwork experiences. Survey and interview data has been collected from 18 engineering classes. Our mixed-methods approach consisted of quantitative and qualitative methods. This paper summarizes the preliminary results and initial findings of this study.

AU - Yiyi Wang
AU - Stephanie Claussen
AU - Xiaorong Zhang
AU - Fatemeh Khalkhal
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 257: Development and Initial Outcomes of an NSF RIEF Project in Understanding Teamwork Experience and its Linkage to Engineering Identity of Diverse Students
UR - https://peer.asee.org/42703
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42703
ER -