Examining the Effects of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Activities in First-Year Engineering Classes

Abstract

in the College of Education and Human Services in the department of Learning Sciences and Human Development. In her research, she is interested the assessment of student learning, particularly the assessment of academic growth, and evaluating the impact of curricular change.

There’s So Much to Do and Not Enough Time to Do It! A Case for Sentiment Analysis to Derive Meaning From Open Text Using Student Reflections of Engineering Activities

“…As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant (Award#1726268, 1726088, &1725880), the research team for the program being evaluated developed and implemented multiple activities into several engineering and computer science classes at three universities to address this chilly climate. Specifically, the purpose of the activities was to help students develop inclusive professional identities in an attempt to change the climate of undergraduate engineering programs (Rambo-Hernandez, Morris, Casper, Hensel, & Schwartz, 2019). The team defines inclusive professional identities as students who recognize and seek out diversity in their teams, work in teams to capitalize on the diversity present to strengthen their teams and relevant outcomes, and consider a broad range of potential consumers when designing products or services (Atadero, Paguyo, Rambo-Hernandez, & Henderson, 2018).…”

Teamwork Training as a Means of Mastering More Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Practices in Engineering Curricula

“…This uneven demographic composition may result in inequalities amongst team members during projects [9]. Studies of American engineering educational cultures indicate that under-represented and underserved students recognize discrimination from dominant groups but also across and within minority groups [9][10]. Misperceptions of underrepresented students' abilities-by peers during group work as well as faculty members and advisorsinfluence the retention of students from less represented groups [11][12].…”

Course Interventions to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Engineering Curricula

“…Efforts toward more inclusive classrooms which are focused on student team dynamics are well documented [3], [9] [10], [11]. However, it is critical to provide guidance on the value and importance of leveraging the benefits of diverse teams [12]. When the benefits of diverse teams are not pointedly addressed, the effectiveness of a diverse team can be diminished.…”

“…When the benefits of diverse teams are not pointedly addressed, the effectiveness of a diverse team can be diminished. One prime example of this is inequitable distribution of work and tasks due to gender bias [9], [10], [12],…”

“…Similar to [12], this work focuses on the integration of activities designed to help students see the value and importance of diverse perspectives in engineering design. The engineering program at the investigator's institution was launched in Fall 2018.…”