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1. Development and Assessment of a Vignette Survey Instrument to Identify Responses due to Hidden Curriculum among Engineering Students and Faculty

   Villanueva, I. ; Di Stefano, M. ; Gelles, L. ; Youmans, K. ; Hunt, A. ( January 2020 , IJEE International Journal of Engineering Education)

   null (Ed.)

   One of the pivotal goals in engineering education is to broaden participation of different minorities. An overlooked barrier yet to be explored is how hidden curriculum and its connected constructs may impede this goal. Hidden curriculum (HC) refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended assumptions, lessons, values, beliefs, attitudes, and perspectives in engineering. This paper will present the development and assessment of a mixed-method vignette survey instrument to evaluate the responses of current engineering students and faculty when exposed to several examples of hidden curriculum. Results from 153 engineering students and faculty across the United States and Puerto Rico were used to assess the survey sub-subscales (HC awareness, emotions, self-efficacy, and self-advocacy). Findings revealed Cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.70 (HC awareness), 0.73 (emotions), 0.91 (self-efficacy), and 0.91 (self-advocacy). The overall instrument had a reliability of 0.74. Alongside HC awareness, we found that among different axes of inequity, gender, role, and institution type are important elements that shaped the responses of these engineering populations. 

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2. A methodological approach for researching online teacher professional development

   Johnson, M. M. ( April 2021 , Middle Atlantic ASEE Section Spring 2021 Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   COVID-19 has altered the landscape of teaching and learning. For those in in-service teacher education, workshops have been suspended causing programs to adapt their professional development to a virtual space to avoid indefinite postponement or cancellation. This paradigm shift in the way we conduct learning experiences creates several logistical and pedagogical challenges but also presents an important opportunity to conduct research about how learning happens in these new environments. This paper describes the approach we took to conduct research in a series of virtual workshops aimed at teaching rural elementary teachers about engineering practices and how to teach a unit from an engineering curriculum. Our work explores how engineering concepts and practices are socially constructed through interactions with teachers, students, and artifacts. This approach, called interactional ethnography has been used by the authors and others to learn about engineering teaching and learning in precollege classrooms. The approach relies on collecting data during instruction, such as video and audio recordings, interviews, and artifacts such as journal entries and photos of physical designs. Findings are triangulated by analyzing these data sources. This methodology was going to be applied in an in-person engineering education workshop for rural elementary teachers, however the pandemic forced us to conduct the workshops remotely. Teachers, working in pairs, were sent workshop supplies, and worked together during the training series that took place over Zoom over four days for four hours each session. The paper describes how we collected video and audio of teachers and the facilitators both in whole group and in breakout rooms. Class materials and submissions of photos and evaluations were managed using Google Classroom. Teachers took photos of their work and scanned written materials and submitted them all by email. Slide decks were shared by the users and their group responses were collected in real time. Workshop evaluations were collected after each meeting using Google Forms. Evaluation data suggest that the teachers were engaged by the experience, learned significantly about engineering concepts and the knowledge-producing practices of engineers, and feel confident about applying engineering activities in their classrooms. This methodology should be of interest to the membership for three distinct reasons. First, remote instruction is a reality in the near-term but will likely persist in some form. Although many of us prefer to teach in person, remote learning allows us to reach many more participants, including those living in remote and rural areas who cannot easily attend in-person sessions with engineering educators, so it benefits the field to learn how to teach effectively in this way. Second, it describes an emerging approach to engineering education research. Interactional ethnography has been applied in precollege classrooms, but this paper demonstrates how it can also be used in teacher professional development contexts. Third, based on our application of interactional ethnography to an education setting, readers will learn specifically about how to use online collaborative software and how to collect and organize data sources for research purposes. 

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3. Barriers and supports needed to improve ET career development: A two-year view of D.E.E.P. engineering technology career formation progress and impacts

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--36738  

   Frady, K. ; Hughes, C. ; High, K. ( July 2021 , Annual American Society for Engineering Education Conference)

   The purpose of the Research in the Formation of Engineers National Science Foundation funded project, Developing Engineering Experiences and Pathways in Engineering Technology Career Formation (D.E.E.P. Engineering Technology Career Formation), is to develop a greater understanding of the professional identity, institutional culture, and formation of engineer technicians and technologists (ET) who are prepared at two-year colleges. ET professionals are important hands-on members of engineering teams who have specialized knowledge of components and engineering systems. Little research on career development and the role of ET in the workforce has previously been conducted prompting national organizations such as NSF and the National Academy of Sciences to prompt more research in this area [1]. The primary objectives of this project are to: (a) identify dimensions of career orientations and anchors at various stages of professional preparation and map to ET career pathways, (b) develop an empirical framework, incorporating individual career anchors and effect of institutional culture, for understanding ET professional formation, and (c) develop and pilot interventions aimed at transforming engineering formation systems in ET contexts. The three interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks integrated to guide design and analysis of this research study are social cognitive career theory (SCCT) [2], Schein’s career anchors which focuses on individual career orientation [3], and the Hughes value framework focused on the organization [4]. SCCT which links self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and personal goals to educational and career decisions and outcomes ties the individual career anchors to the institutional context of the Hughes framework [2]. To date, the project has collected and analyzed quantitative data from over 330 participants who are two-year college ET students, two-year college transfer students, and early career ET professionals. Qualitative data from historical institutional documents has also been collected and analyzed. Initial analyses have revealed gaps and needed areas of support for ET students in the area of professional formation. Thus far, the identified gaps are in institutional policy (i.e. lack of articulation agreements), needed faculty professional development (i.e. two-year faculty on specific career development and professional ET formation needs and four-year faculty on unique needs of transfer students), missing curriculum and resources supporting career development and professional formation of ET students, and integration of transfer student services focusing on connecting faculty and advisors across both institutional levels and types of programs. Significant gaps in the research promoting understanding of the role of ET and unique professional formation needs of these students were also confirmed. This project has been successful at helping to broaden participation in ET engineering education through integrating new participants into activities (new four-year institutional stakeholders, new industry partners, new faculty and staff directly and indirectly working with ET students) and through promoting disciplinary (engineering education and ET) and cross disciplinary collaborations (human resource development, higher education leadership, and student affairs). With one year remaining before completion of this project, this project has promoted a better understanding of student and faculty barriers supporting career development for ET students and identified need for career development resources and curriculum in ET. Words: 498 References [1] National Academy of Engineering. (2016). Engineering technology education in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. [2] Lent, R.W., & Brown, S.B. (1996). Social cognitive approach to career development: An overivew. Career Development Quarterly, 44, 310-321. [3] Schein, E. (1996). Career anchors revisited: Implications for career development in the 21st century. Academy of Management Executive, 10(4), 80-88. [4] Hughes, C. (2014, Spring). Conceptualizing the five values of people and technology development: Implications for human resource managmeent and development. Workforce Education Forum, 37(1), 23-44. 

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4. An Approach to Understand the Role of Identity in Engineering Leadership

   Schell, Wiliam J ; Hughes, Bryce E. ( June 2017 , ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   In order to most effectively contribute to the development of solutions to society’s greatest challenges, engineers must learn to lead the interdisciplinary teams required to develop these solutions. However, most undergraduate engineering programs do little to develop leadership skills in their students. Perhaps, one reason for this gap between needs and education is a conflict between the development of an engineering identity and a leadership identity. To date, the literature contains little work that illustrates the role leadership concepts play in the formation of an engineering identity. Therefore, more work is needed to understand the formation of a leadership identity within the formation of an engineering identity. Together, these development processes constitute the formation of engineering leaders. This paper presents the methods underway to validate and refine a proposed theoretical model of engineering leadership identity development. This model can be used to reshape existing engineering leadership education programs and integrate leadership into the engineering curriculum in an innovative manner. The model starts with a fundamental assumption that the engineering leadership formation process is, at its core, an identity development process. This assumption is also central to two established theoretical perspectives that informed the construction of this model. Lave and Wenger’s (1991) communities of practice model argues that the development of a professional identity is the outcome of learning within a community of practice, and is frequently used to explain the process by which undergraduates develop a sense of engineering identity. The communities of practice model is then combined with Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, and Osteen’s (2005) Leadership Identity Development Model to outline how engineering students might cultivate a self-concept as a leader. A key argument within this model is that college students develop a personal sense of leadership as an identity when they view leadership as a process, not merely a position. This paper first explains the development of this theoretical model of engineering leadership identity development combining the literature from engineering identity development, leadership identity development within collegiate populations, and engineering leadership. Following this explanation, this work focuses on the methods developed and currently being deployed to validate and refine the model, including initial findings from this research. 

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5. Work in Progress: Creating Alternative Learning Strategies for Transfer Engineering Programs

   https://doi.org/10.18260/p.25085  

   Enriquez, Amelito ; Dunmire, Erik ; Rebold, Tom ; Langhoff, Nick ; Schiorring, Eva ( June 2015 , 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   The 2012 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” indicated that addressing the retention problem in the first two years of college is the most promising and cost-effective strategy to produce the STEM professionals needed in order to retain US historical preeminence in science and technology. The California Community College System, with its 112 community colleges and 71 off-campus centers enrolling approximately 2.3 million students (roughly a third of all US community college students) is in a prime position to grow the future STEM workforce.However, in the face of shrinking resources and increasing costs and other barriers, an effective approach is needed in order to capitalize on this opportunity. One prong in this approach is to more fully exploit modern technological capabilities to reduce costs, broaden access, and improve educational productivity. This paper presents preliminary results of a collaborative project, Creating Alternative Learning Strategies for Transfer Engineering Programs (CALSTEP), which aims to strengthen community college engineering programs using distance education and other alternative delivery strategies that will enable small-to-medium community college engineering programs to provide their students access to lower-division engineering courses needed to be competitive for transfer to four-year engineering programs. Funded by a three-year grant through the National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (NSF IUSE) program, CALSTEP will leverage existing educational resources and develop new ones for online lecture courses, as well as core engineering laboratory courses that are delivered either completely online, or with limited face-to-face interactions. The initial areas of focus for laboratory course development are: Introduction to Engineering, Engineering Graphics, Materials Science, and Circuit Analysis. CALSTEP will also develop alternative models of flipped classroom instruction to improve student success and enhance student access to engineering courses that otherwise could not be supported in traditional delivery modes due to low enrollment. The project will iteratively evaluate and refine the curriculum over the three-year grant period, as well as train other community college engineering faculty in the effective use of the curriculum and resources developed. 

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