2019 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity
Crystal City, Virginia
April 14, 2019
April 14, 2019
April 22, 2019
Track: Learning Spaces, Pedagogy, and Curriculum Design Technical Session 4
Diversity and Learning Spaces, Pedagogy & Curriculum Design
13
10.18260/1-2--31781
https://peer.asee.org/31781
417
Ben Lutz is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. His research interests include innovative pedagogies in engineering design, conceptual change and development, school-to-work transitions for new engineers, and efforts for inclusion and diversity within engineering. His current work explores how students describe their own learning in engineering design and how that learning supports transfer of learning from school into professional practice as well as exploring students' conceptions of diversity and its importance within engineering fields.
Michelle Bothwell is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Oregon State University. Her teaching and research bridge ethics, social justice and engineering with the aim of cultivating an inclusive and socially just engineering profession.
I received my BS from the University of Connecticut and my Ph.D. at Oregon State University, both in Chemical Engineering. I then did postdoctoral research in solar thermochemistry at the University of Florida in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Currently, I teach in the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University. I am responsible for teaching "Sustainable Engineering", a course open to all majors at all levels, as well as the senior design sequence in Chemical Engineering. I was fortunate to take part in a 60 hour Difference, Power, and Discrimination Academy at Oregon State University, which led to the development of our current Practitioner Learning Community centered around Inclusive Teaming. I am enthusiastic about incorporating best practices in teaming and teaching to improve the student experience in our School.
Dr. Mallette worked as a design, process and research engineer before obtaining her PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering. She uses her engineering experience to enrich undergraduate education and has chosen to focus on teamwork as a research area. Natasha experienced the successes and failures that go along with functional and dysfunctional teaming, so hopes to help students learn skills to function effectively on multi-disciplinary and cross-departmental teams during their careers. She started her teaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was lucky to learn from accomplished professors. Periodically, she works for UW-Madison as a Visiting Instructor. Her previous research explored biofilms and biological production of fuel chemicals at the Center for Biofilm Engineering.
Susannah C. Davis is a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University. She received her Ph.D. and M.Ed. from the University of Washington, and her B.A. from Smith College. She is currently working on the NSF-funded REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (RED) project at OSU. Her research focuses on organizational learning and change, particularly in higher education; learning in the workplace; curricular and pedagogical development; and the preparation of professionals for social justice goals.
This paper describes the development of and outcomes from a Practitioner Learning Community (PLC) model used to design instructional content, pedagogy, and assessment metrics for inclusive, socially just teaming practices. Comprised of postdoctoral researchers, instructors, and tenure-lined research faculty, our PLC used strategies to produce sustainable instructional shifts, including those that: worked to cultivate trust among participants; leveraged existing beliefs/understandings; offered long-term, regularly-spaced interventions; considered institutional culture and context; and linked instructional outcomes to faculty participants’ assigned work. PLC members developed content and teaching tools that supported a number of areas, including development of: processes for team norming; curricula for functional teaming (e.g., conflict management and effective communication); modules to engage students in the examination of complex structures, systems, and ideologies that sustain discrimination and inequities in the practice of engineering; and assessment instruments to measure student teaming competencies. This paper provides a framework for supporting the exploration and development of effective and inclusive teaming practices at other universities to address the new ABET student outcome #5 and other challenging, unfamiliar topics within engineering. Given the success of the PLC model in the current context, those interested in developing a PLC at their own institution might consider adapting this framework to fit within their own context and culture.
Lutz, B. D., & Bothwell, M. K., & AuYeung, N., & Carlisle, T. K., & Mallette, N., & Davis, S. C. (2019, April), Practitioner Learning Community: Design of Instructional Content, Pedagogy, and Assessment Metrics for Inclusive and Socially Just Teaming Practices Paper presented at 2019 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity , Crystal City, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--31781
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