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1. Learning and Professional Development Through Integrated Reflective Activities in Electrical and Computer Engineering Courses

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637478  

   Rover, Diane T.; Duwe, Henry J.; Mina, Mani; Fila, Nicholas D.; Jones, Phillip H.; Sleeth, Lindsey S. (October 2021, 2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE))

   This Research-to-Practice Full Paper describes the implementation of integrated reflective activities in two computer engineering courses. Reflective activities contribute to student learning and professional development. Instructional team members have been examining the need and opportunities to deepen learning by integrating reflective activities into problem-solving experiences. We implemented reflective activities using a coordinated framework for a modified Kolbian cycle. The framework consists of reflection-for-action, reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action, and composted reflections. Reflection-for-action takes place before the experience and involves thinking about and planning future actions. Reflection-in-action takes place during the experience while actively problem-solving. Reflection-on-action takes place after the problem-solving experience. Composting involves revisiting past experiences and reflections to inform future planning. We describe the reflective activities in the context of the coordinated framework, including strategies to support reflection and increase the likelihood of engagement and success. We conclude with an analysis of the activities using the CPREE framework for reflection pathways. 

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2. Engineering Education Guilds: Understanding Their Vision for Innovation

   Mallouk, Kaitlin E.; Riley, Darby R.; Strong, Alexandra C.; Faber, Courtney J. (July 2021, American Society for Engineering Education 128th Annual Conference and Exposition)

   Engineering education guilds, such as the Consortium to Promote Reflection in Engineering Education (CPREE) and the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), seek to work at the forefront of educational innovation by creating networks of instructor change agents who design and implement a particular innovation in their own context to further the professional formation of engineers (PFE). While many of the innovations facilitated by CPREE and KEEN have been published extensively, it is unclear how successful the propagation of reflection and entrepreneurial mindset has been in the engineering education community. The major aim of this project is to characterize these two engineering education guilds with respect to their dissemination/propagation plans and, in the future, quantify the propagation of the innovations championed by CPREE and KEEN. The research questions we seek to answer in this paper are: (1) What are the planned dissemination/propagation approaches of well-established engineering education guilds? and (2) To what extent do their characteristics align with the Designing for Sustained Adoption Assessment Instrument (DSAAI)? The DSAAI was developed in 2016 to provide education developers, grant writing consultants, and funding agencies with a tool for assessing the propagation plans of researchers developing educational change strategies. To answer these questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the leaders of CPREE and KEEN. The transcriptions of the interviews will be used to create within-case reports for each guild. The within-case reports will consist of a rich description of the pedagogical innovation as well as the history of the guild and its goals. Using the DSAAI, we will qualitatively code the techniques that each guild is using to facilitate widespread adoption as well as the extent to which they are following a dissemination or propagation paradigm. Lastly, thematic analysis will be used to capture emerging themes that arise from the interviews. 

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3. Perceiving Advancements: An Exploration of Positive Experiences that Strengthened Undergraduate STEM Students’ Motivation during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

   https://doi.org/10.63504/jstem.v25i3.2630  

   Lamssali, Mehdi; Odori-Boadu, Andrea; Ferguson, Alesia C; Deng, Dongyang; Bock-Hyeng, Christian (November 2024, Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research)

   Raju, P K (Ed.)

   The COVID-19 pandemic was highly disruptive and Institutions of Higher Education struggled to effectively educate undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students, who were facing unique challenges in their modified learning environments. While some research has focused on educational challenges encountered in high-risk pandemic environments, limited empirical evidence exists to provide insights into the positive experiences of STEM students during the pandemic. Considering that motivation and positive psychology theorists emphasize that positive processes strengthen the optimal functioning of people and institutions, the purpose of this present research was to explore positive experiences that strengthened undergraduate STEM students’ motivation to complete their STEM course requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Data was obtained from an open-ended Qualtrics-based survey question requiring research participants to explain why salient positive experiences influenced motivation. An inductive thematic analysis method was adopted to analyze statements from 131 STEM students enrolled in six U.S. institutions.  Utilizing the NVivo-12 qualitative analysis software, data analysis involved coding and theme development. Grounded in the data, the emergent theme, Perceiving Advancements, explained specific experiences that were described as positive and motivated the completion of STEM educational requirements. Drawing from previous lived experiences and expectations, STEM student motivation was attributed to the perceived capacity or potential of positive experiences to advance to academic, career, and personal goals. Theoretical insights contribute to understanding motivation in STEM students during high-risk contexts, while practical implications inform interventions for resource optimization and improved STEM student and institution resiliency in high-risk contexts such as pandemics. With caution, findings may be extended to inform positive psychology and motivation research, policies, and practices of non-STEM, non-undergraduate, and non-U.S. populations. 

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4. Work in Progress: Understanding Student Perceptions of Stress as part of Engineering Culture

   Cross, Kelly J.; Jensen, Karin J. (January 2018, American Society of Engineering Education Conference Proceedings)

   High levels of stress and anxiety are common amongst college students, particularly engineering students. Students report lack of sleep, grades, competition, change in lifestyle, and other significant stressors throughout their undergraduate education (1, 2). Stress and anxiety have been shown to negatively impact student experience (3-6), academic performance (6-8), and retention (9). Previous studies have focused on identifying factors that cause individual students stress while completing undergraduate engineering degree programs (1). However, it not well-understood how a culture of stress is perceived and is propagated in engineering programs or how this culture impacts student levels of identification with engineering. Further, the impact of student stress has not been directly considered in engineering regarding recruitment, retention, and success. Therefore, our guiding research question is: Does the engineering culture create stress for students that hinder their engineering identity development? To answer our research question, we designed a sequential mixed methods study with equal priority of quantitative survey data and qualitative individual interviews. Our study participants are undergraduate engineering students across all levels and majors at a large, public university. Our sample goal is 2000 engineering student respondents. We combined three published surveys to build our quantitative data collection instrument, including the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), Identification with engineering subscale, and Engineering Department Inclusion Level subscale. The objective of the quantitative instrument is to illuminate individual perceptions of the existence of an engineering stress culture (ESC) and create an efficient tool to measure the impact ESC on engineering identity development. Specifically, we seek to understand the relationships among the following constructs; 1) identification with engineering, 2) stress and anxiety, and 3) feelings of inclusion within their department. The focus of this paper presents the results of the pilot of the proposed instrument with 20 participants and a detailed data collection and analysis process. In an effort to validate our instrument, we conducted a pilot study to refine our data collection process and the results will guide the data collection for the larger study. In addition to identifying relationships among construct, the survey data will be further analyzed to specify which demographics are mediating or moderating factors of these relationships. For example, does a student’s 1st generation status influence their perception of stress or engineering identity development? Our analysis may identify discipline-specific stressors and characterize culture components that promote student anxiety and stress. Our objective is to validate our survey instrument and use it to inform the protocol for the follow-up interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the responses to the survey instrument. Understanding what students view as stressful and how students identify stress as an element of program culture will support the development of interventions to mitigate student stress. References 1. Schneider L (2007) Perceived stress among engineering students. A Paper Presented at St. Lawrence Section Conference. Toronto, Canada. Retrieved from: www. asee. morrisville. edu. 2. Ross SE, Niebling BC, & Heckert TM (1999) Sources of stress among college students. Social psychology 61(5):841-846. 3. Goldman CS & Wong EH (1997) Stress and the college student. Education 117(4):604-611. 4. Hudd SS, et al. (2000) Stress at college: Effects on health habits, health status and self-esteem. College Student Journal 34(2):217-228. 5. Macgeorge EL, Samter W, & Gillihan SJ (2005) Academic Stress, Supportive Communication, and Health A version of this paper was presented at the 2005 International Communication Association convention in New York City. Communication Education 54(4):365-372. 6. Burt KB & Paysnick AA (2014) Identity, stress, and behavioral and emotional problems in undergraduates: Evidence for interaction effects. Journal of college student development 55(4):368-384. 7. Felsten G & Wilcox K (1992) Influences of stress and situation-specific mastery beliefs and satisfaction with social support on well-being and academic performance. Psychological Reports 70(1):291-303. 8. Pritchard ME & Wilson GS (2003) Using emotional and social factors to predict student success. Journal of college student development 44(1):18-28. 9. Zhang Z & RiCharde RS (1998) Prediction and Analysis of Freshman Retention. AIR 1998 Annual Forum Paper. 

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5. GIFTS: Making Research Experiences Meaningful through Critical Self-Reflection

   DeCrescenzo, Peter; Jangha, S. (June 2023, American Society of Engineering Education)

   In this Great Ideas for Teaching Students (GIFTS) paper, we offer learning outcomes that we are beginning to recognize from our eight-week research experience for undergraduates (REU). There are four characteristics that have been found to be essential to success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields: a strong sense of STEM identity, scientific self-efficacy, a sense of belonging, and a psychological sense of community. This is especially true for first-year and transfer students pursuing STEM undergraduate degrees. A variety of studies have been published that go into detail about why these characteristics in particular have such a significant effect on student performance and retention. This paper will present Critical Self-Reflection as a practical way to integrate development of these characteristics into student research experiences to foster experiential learning that goes beyond increasing technical skills. STEM students are not often trained to critically self-reflect on their experiences in classroom and research settings. An inability for undergraduates to reflect intentionally on their experiences creates greater risk for attrition from STEM disciplines. Curated reflective experiences in collaborative learning settings can offer professional development opportunities to enhance students’ social and technical communication skills. There are four phases within the scaffolded Critical Self-Reflection framework: Learning to Reflect, Reflection for Action, Reflection in Action, and Reflection on Action. When applying the evidence-based practice, STEM undergraduate researchers describe their perceptions via three activities: creating a legacy statement, participating in facilitated dialogue sessions, and writing curated reflection journal entries within an REU. Through critical self-reflection exercises, we are beginning to find growth of first-year and transfer STEM undergraduates in the following areas: understanding of their role in the lab; confidence in their researcher identity; expression of agency; observation and communication skills; and intentionality for action. Participating in this self-reflection allows students to make meaning of their experience enabling them to hone the aforementioned characteristics that creates a pathway from their undergraduate experience to undergraduate degree completion, graduate degree attainment, and to the STEM workforce. 

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