Work in Progress: Project Teams’ Structure Impacting Students’ Professional Skill Development

Emily Buten; Jack Boomer Perry; Cindy Wheaton; Aaron W. Johnson

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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: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Technical Session 20
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48507

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Paper Authors

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Emily Buten University of Michigan

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Emily (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Engineering Education Research program at the University of Michigan and received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Dayton. Her research focuses on individuals' development from students to professional engineers. She is particularly interested in studying co-op/internship programs, professional skills development, and diverse student experiences in experiential learning settings.

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Jack Boomer Perry University of Michigan

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Boomer is a graduate student completing his master's degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan. His focus in engineering education research has been towards bridging the gap between the undergraduate engineering curriculum and engineering industry practice.

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Cindy Wheaton University of Michigan

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Aaron W. Johnson University of Michigan

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Aaron W. Johnson (he/him) is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department and a Core Faculty member of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. His lab’s design-based research focuses on how to re-contextualize engineering science engineering courses to better reflect and prepare students for the reality of ill-defined, sociotechnical engineering practice. Their current projects include studying and designing classroom interventions around macroethical issues in aerospace engineering and the productive beginnings of engineering judgment as students create and use mathematical models. Aaron holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from U-M, and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to re-joining U-M, he was an instructor in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Abstract

This work-in-progress paper investigates what elements of project teams assist students in developing professional skills. We define professional skills as the non-discipline-specific skills that support students’ work (i.e. communication, time management, etc.) and student project teams as co-curricular, student-run activities that complete an engineering task, whether for a national competition or for accomplishing their self-set goals. Project teams are often cited as activities where students can learn technical and professional skills; however, it’s unclear which structures or mechanisms on project teams assist or prompt students’ professional skill development.

To address this topic, two focus groups were conducted with a total of eight students from different project teams. The focus group structure was inspired by Group Level Assessment and follows the stages of generating, appreciating, reflecting, and understanding. During the generating, appreciating, and reflecting stages the students created a graphical representation of their project teams based on activity systems from Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Activity systems are used to represent a system, such as project teams holistically and are composed of six categories: the members, the tools used, the rules, the surrounding community, the way work is divided, and the goal of the activity. Then students completed another iteration with their diagrams by adding the skills that they have learned from their project team experience based on the Student Involvement Framework. The Student Involvement Framework contains a list of professional skills associated with project teams that were available to students to reference during the focus group. For the understanding stage, the students were asked to discuss their experiences on project teams and how they learned professional skills as members.

The diagrams were analyzed using activity system categories as a priori codes to investigate if professional skills are connected with specific activity system categories. All skills listed in the Student Involvement Framework were written on at least one diagram. While there were not clear connections between activity systems and the majority of the professional skills, some skills were repeatedly connected to specific project team elements or requirements.

Citation
Format

Buten, E., & Perry, J. B., & Wheaton, C., & Johnson, A. W. (2024, June), Work in Progress: Project Teams’ Structure Impacting Students’ Professional Skill Development Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48507

TY - CPAPER
AB - This work-in-progress paper investigates what elements of project teams assist students in developing professional skills. We define professional skills as the non-discipline-specific skills that support students’ work (i.e. communication, time management, etc.) and student project teams as co-curricular, student-run activities that complete an engineering task, whether for a national competition or for accomplishing their self-set goals. Project teams are often cited as activities where students can learn technical and professional skills; however, it’s unclear which structures or mechanisms on project teams assist or prompt students’ professional skill development.

To address this topic, two focus groups were conducted with a total of eight students from different project teams. The focus group structure was inspired by Group Level Assessment and follows the stages of generating, appreciating, reflecting, and understanding. During the generating, appreciating, and reflecting stages the students created a graphical representation of their project teams based on activity systems from Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Activity systems are used to represent a system, such as project teams holistically and are composed of six categories: the members, the tools used, the rules, the surrounding community, the way work is divided, and the goal of the activity. Then students completed another iteration with their diagrams by adding the skills that they have learned from their project team experience based on the Student Involvement Framework. The Student Involvement Framework contains a list of professional skills associated with project teams that were available to students to reference during the focus group. For the understanding stage, the students were asked to discuss their experiences on project teams and how they learned professional skills as members.

The diagrams were analyzed using activity system categories as a priori codes to investigate if professional skills are connected with specific activity system categories. All skills listed in the Student Involvement Framework were written on at least one diagram. While there were not clear connections between activity systems and the majority of the professional skills, some skills were repeatedly connected to specific project team elements or requirements.
AU - Emily Buten
AU - Jack Boomer Perry
AU - Cindy Wheaton
AU - Aaron W. Johnson
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work in Progress: Project Teams’ Structure Impacting Students’ Professional Skill Development
UR - https://peer.asee.org/48507
ER -