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Lessons Learned: Teaching and Learning Academy Workshop to Promote Asset-based Mindset among STEM Faculty

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Learnin' Lessons about Faculty Development

Tagged Division

Faculty Development Division

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

5

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34919

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/34919

Download Count

433

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Paper Authors

biography

Daniel Galvan California State University, Los Angeles

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Dr. Daniel Galvan is Director of Acceleration Initiatives and Student Engagement in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles. He has an extensive background in facilitating asset-based approaches towards teaching through equity-minded workshops in community colleges, public, and private four-year institutions. He received his BA in Sociology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, his MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs from New York University, and his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from University of Southern California.

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biography

Jianyu Jane Dong California State University, Los Angeles

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Jianyu Dong is a professor in electrical and computer engineering and currently serves as the Associate Dean for the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at Cal State LA. Her area of expertise is video compression/communication, multimedia networks, QoS, etc. With a strong passion in Engineering Education, she has been engaged in multiple funded projects and initiatives to increase the participation and success of students from undeserved, low-income communities in engineering areas.

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Lizabeth L Thompson P.E. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

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Lizabeth is currently a visiting professor in engineering education at Cal State LA. She is also a professor at Cal Poly, SLO in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She has been teaching for 26 years and has a track record of using innovative pedagogy such as project based, flipped classroom and competency grading to support students success. Currently her research is in the area of social justice in Engineering Education.

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Emily L. Allen California State University, Los Angeles

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Emily L. Allen, Ph.D., is Dean of the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles. She believes in a collaborative, student-centered approach to research, education, academic administration and leadership. She currently chairs the ASEE Engineering Deans Council Diversity Committee, and serves on the ABET Academic Affairs Council, the TMS Accreditation Committee, and the National Board of Directors for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Dr. Allen earned her BS in metallurgy and materials science from Columbia University, and her MS and PhD in materials science and engineering from Stanford University. She previously served as faculty, chair and Associate Dean at San Jose State University's College of Engineering.

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Abstract

This is a lessons-learned paper on the design of faculty development workshop. Minority-serving institutions (MSI’s) play a significant role in diversifying the engineering workforce. As many students from MSI’s come from underserved communities, they encounter multiple barriers (financially, academically and socially) that prevent them from achieving their academic goals. With good intention to help students succeed, the faculty, however, often attribute the academic barriers to the students’ lack of preparation, motivation, or effort to learn. Research studies showed that this deficit mindset of instructors negatively impact the students’ self-efficacy and hinder their academic growth. A recent report from the National Academies highlighted the need to create a learner-centered culture that "meets students where they are". This raised an important yet challenging question to faculty developers:"What can be done to help transform faculty’s perception to achieve such cultural change?"

In Summer 2019, the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology at XXX University hosted a Teaching and Learning Academy Workshop that aimed at bridging the cultural and perception gap between faculty and students in Math and Engineering classrooms. Grounded in Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth model, the workshop was designed to engage participants in a sequence of reflective and conversational activities that allowed the faculty to connect their own educational experiences with their expectation towards the students, and recognize the strength of the students in terms of their cultural wealth in Aspirational, Linguistic, Family, Social, Navigational, and Resistance forms. The workshop received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the participants from both Math and Engineering departments, many of whom expressed that "the workshop was impactful and prompted them to rethink their teaching practice." The success of the workshop provided preliminary yet promising answer as to how to change faculty’s perception to establish learner-center culture. This paper shares what we learned in planning, organizing, and delivering the workshop and summarizes strategies to attract a broad participation among STEM faculty and ensure a high level of engagement. The lessons learned will shed insights to address some common challenges faced by faculty developers including the limited participation especially in institutions that professional development is optional and the limited impact of workshop/training on teaching practice. The authors would like to present the paper in lightning talk to engage the audience in in-depth conversation following short introduction.

Galvan, D., & Dong, J. J., & Thompson, L. L., & Allen, E. L. (2020, June), Lessons Learned: Teaching and Learning Academy Workshop to Promote Asset-based Mindset among STEM Faculty Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34919

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