Mentoring for Making:  Peer Mentors Working with Learners in a Making-Focused Engineering Course

Louis S. Nadelson; Pamela L. Dickrell; Katherine DeJesus

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 8: Peers as Mentors & Instructors
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs Division (FYP)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47770

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Louis S. Nadelson University of Central Arkansas orcid.org/0000-0002-6007-6555

visit author page

Louis S. Nadelson has a BS from Colorado State University, a BA from the Evergreen State College, a MEd from Western Washington University, and a PhD in educational psychology from UNLV. His scholarly interests include all areas of STEM teaching and learning.

visit author page

biography

Pamela L. Dickrell University of Florida

visit author page

Dr. Pamela Dickrell is the Associate Chair of Academics in the Department of Engineering Education, in the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Her research focuses on effective teaching methods, first-year students, design, makerspace education, peer mentoring; student identity, and hands-on education for undergraduate student engagement and retention.

visit author page

author page

Katherine DeJesus

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Peer mentoring in college programs of study is not uncommon. However, most of the time, peer mentoring is focused on supporting students in traditional solving problems they are assigned as part of the coursework. Our work extends beyond examining conventional forms of peer mentoring by examining the work of peer mentors supporting students' work in a first-year engineering design course based in a makerspace classroom. The problems students solve in the makerspace classroom-based course typically have a wide array of possible solutions, which differs from many problems students solve in traditional courses with peer mentor support in which there is a single solution. Further, students in the makerspace classroom-based course are also expected to work in teams, which adds another layer of complexity to the role of the peer mentors working in the course.

Our research goal was to empirically document the peer mentors' interactions with students and the students learning gains and development due to working with the peer mentors. To gather data from the students working with the peer mentors, we added a series of additional questions to their end-of-semester course evaluations. Note that the university's Institutional Review Board reviewed and approved this process. The questions we added included, "Please share how the peer mentors influenced your sense of belonging within the College of Engineering." "Please share how the peer mentors helped your group function as teams." and "Please share how the peer mentors helped you develop confidence in your abilities to do engineering." We also included companion Likert scale items such as "The peer mentors helped our team work together." and "The peer mentors helped us resolve conflicts in our group."

We found that peer mentors tended to be perceived as a resource, supportive and reassuring to the students and meeting the students where they are. Thus, the mentors provided students with emotional, personal, and technical support to influence the students' sense of belonging to the college. The mentors helped the students function in teams by encouraging them to collaborate and include all.

In their efforts to help students develop confidence in their abilities, the mentors worked to meet the students where they were at and reassured the students' capacity to succeed. They were also likely to encourage students to seek help, support their technical skill development, and encourage the students to apply their knowledge.

The final focus of our research was on the mentors engaging in helping students feel part of the engineering community. We found the mentors encouraged the students to join an engineering club or attend engineering events.

In our final report, we provide details of our data, both quantitative and qualitative, examples of the student's responses, the implications of our findings, and ideas for using our research to support mentor preparation programs to maximize the benefits of peer mentoring in maker spaces and other non-traditional engineering learning environments.

Citation
Format

Nadelson, L. S., & Dickrell, P. L., & DeJesus, K. (2024, June), Mentoring for Making: Peer Mentors Working with Learners in a Making-Focused Engineering Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47770

TY - CPAPER
AB - Peer mentoring in college programs of study is not uncommon. However, most of the time, peer mentoring is focused on supporting students in traditional solving problems they are assigned as part of the coursework. Our work extends beyond examining conventional forms of peer mentoring by examining the work of peer mentors supporting students&#39; work in a first-year engineering design course based in a makerspace classroom. The problems students solve in the makerspace classroom-based course typically have a wide array of possible solutions, which differs from many problems students solve in traditional courses with peer mentor support in which there is a single solution. Further, students in the makerspace classroom-based course are also expected to work in teams, which adds another layer of complexity to the role of the peer mentors working in the course.

Our research goal was to empirically document the peer mentors&#39; interactions with students and the students learning gains and development due to working with the peer mentors. To gather data from the students working with the peer mentors, we added a series of additional questions to their end-of-semester course evaluations. Note that the university&#39;s Institutional Review Board reviewed and approved this process. The questions we added included, &quot;Please share how the peer mentors influenced your sense of belonging within the College of Engineering.&quot; &quot;Please share how the peer mentors helped your group function as teams.&quot; and &quot;Please share how the peer mentors helped you develop confidence in your abilities to do engineering.&quot; We also included companion Likert scale items such as &quot;The peer mentors helped our team work together.&quot; and &quot;The peer mentors helped us resolve conflicts in our group.&quot;

We found that peer mentors tended to be perceived as a resource, supportive and reassuring to the students and meeting the students where they are. Thus, the mentors provided students with emotional, personal, and technical support to influence the students&#39; sense of belonging to the college. The mentors helped the students function in teams by encouraging them to collaborate and include all.

In their efforts to help students develop confidence in their abilities, the mentors worked to meet the students where they were at and reassured the students&#39; capacity to succeed. They were also likely to encourage students to seek help, support their technical skill development, and encourage the students to apply their knowledge.

The final focus of our research was on the mentors engaging in helping students feel part of the engineering community. We found the mentors encouraged the students to join an engineering club or attend engineering events.

In our final report, we provide details of our data, both quantitative and qualitative, examples of the student&#39;s responses, the implications of our findings, and ideas for using our research to support mentor preparation programs to maximize the benefits of peer mentoring in maker spaces and other non-traditional engineering learning environments.

AU - Louis S. Nadelson
AU - Pamela L. Dickrell
AU - Katherine DeJesus
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Mentoring for Making: Peer Mentors Working with Learners in a Making-Focused Engineering Course
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47770
ER -