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Teaching Students Skills to Foster Psychological Safety in a Team Environment

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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

Committee on Educational Policy Presents: Pillars of Student Development

Tagged Division

Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44012

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44012

Download Count

111

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Paper Authors

biography

Michelle Marincel Payne Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and her B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (same school, different name). At Rose-Hulman, Michelle is leading research to support undergraduate students’ learning through research in an entrepreneurially-driven way, and through teaching psychological safety to improve teaming experiences in engineering education. Michelle also mentors undergraduate researchers to investigate the removal of stormwater pollutants in engineered wetlands. Michelle was a 2018 ExCEEd Fellow, and was recognized as the 2019 ASCE Daniel V. Terrell Awardee for her paper on the value of diversity and inclusion statements in ASCE’s codes of ethics.

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biography

James H. Hanson, P.E. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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Dr. James Hanson is Professor and Department Head for Civil & Environmental Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. His teaching emphasis is structural analysis and design. He has conducted research on teaching students how to evaluate their analysis results.

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Abstract

Psychological safety is a critical component of effective teaming. In engineering education, programs rarely teach effective teaming skills and even fewer teach skills for fostering psychological safety. To address this gap, we developed modules to teach engineering students a framework that promotes psychological safety. We implemented these modules at the beginning of the civil engineering sections of an Introduction to Design course. These modules enabled students to experience and practice effective teaming skills through role-playing. The modules focused on how to act and how to respond to promote psychological safety on design projects. Each module was tailored to a different phase of the design process. The themes of the three modules are (1) treating every idea as having potential to contribute to a positive outcome, (2) questioning an idea to obtain valuable insight, and (3) applying the brake to improve a decision. To explore the impact of the modules, we deployed a post-course survey to measure students’ perceptions of psychological safety on their project teams. Compared to control sections of freshman design in other majors, the civil engineering students reported increased psychological safety. Generally, the civil engineering students felt more comfortable in bringing up problems and tough issues, and felt more safe taking risks. These modules are general enough to be applicable to any engineering field, and they are flexible enough to be included in curricula in a variety of ways.

Marincel Payne, M., & Hanson,, J. H. (2023, June), Teaching Students Skills to Foster Psychological Safety in a Team Environment Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44012

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