Minneapolis, MN
August 23, 2022
June 26, 2022
June 29, 2022
19
10.18260/1-2--41030
https://peer.asee.org/41030
423
Dr. Orton is an associate professor in Civil Engineering and is an active member of the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Dr. Orton also serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Missouri. She has participated in several programs aimed at improving undergraduate education. Her research projects have involved the use of carbon fiber reinforced polymers to strengthen structures, analysis and testing for reinforced concrete frames under disproportionate collapse, and risk and reliability analysis of bridges and offshore structures. She is a registered professional engineer in Missouri.
Fan Yu is a doctoral student at the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is originally from China. Fan received her MS in Elementary Education Science and a graduate certificate in Curriculum and Instructions in 2017. She worked as a K12 educational products developer for four years.
Fan’s research interests include STEM education and UX design in learning technologies. She concerns about how learning technologies encourage students from underrepresented groups to study and work in STEM fields.
This work-in-progress paper seeks to examine faculty choice of teaching strategies to improve students’ engineering self-efficacy [1], [2] (belief in one’s abilities to successfully accomplish tasks in engineering) as well as their reflections on the effectiveness of the teaching strategy. Increases in self-efficacy have been related to improved academic and career outcomes [3], especially for women in non-traditional fields such as engineering. The goal of the study is to determine simple yet effective strategies that can be implemented in engineering classrooms to improve self-efficacy.
Seven engineering faculty members participated in a faculty learning community (FLC), a semester long program to learn about teaching strategies in each of the four areas of self-efficacy; mastery experiences (e.g., active learning, scaffolding), vicarious learning (e.g., guest lectures, peer mentors, group work), social persuasion (e.g., constructive feedback, positive self-talk), and emotional arousal (e.g., test anxiety, building rapport). The faculty then chose and implemented strategies in each of the four areas in one of their engineering courses. Monthly meetings of the FLC during implementation allowed faculty to share their experiences and suggestions for refinements in their teaching strategy.
The paper examines the faculty member choice (why they chose to use particular strategies in their course) as well as their reflections on how well the strategy worked (impact on student learning vs ease of implementation). In addition, the paper examines in-class observations and student survey responses to determine if they felt a particular strategy was useful. The research seeks to identify strategies that faculty members chose and are viewed as effective by both the faculty and students. The presentation will seek additional feedback from the wider community on the effectiveness of teaching strategies to improve self-efficacy and future work will include the analysis of additional surveys that were administered to measure student self-efficacy with the goal of determining simple and effective strategies that can be implemented in engineering classrooms.
Orton, S., & Yu, F., & Milord, J., & Flores, L., & Marra, R. (2022, August), Work in Progress: Faculty choice and reflection on teaching strategies to improve engineering self-efficacy Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41030
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