2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 281: Fidelity and Transferability of an Ecological Intervention to Transform Engineering Representation at Scale

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

We report on an ongoing effort to contextualize and test an ecological belonging intervention in first- and second-year engineering courses. As a part of an NSF IUSE: EDU Program, Institutional, and Community Transformation track grant, this intervention targets women, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students to support self-efficacy, belongingness, growth mindset, and identity as avenues to address academic equity gaps that persist in engineering despite increasing enrollment within engineering among these groups. We frame these equity gaps because they exist not from any deficit of the students themselves but rather systemic issues of marginalization that make students feel as if they do not belong. The ecological belonging intervention focuses on common engineering course-specific student experiences of struggle and is delivered by instructors early in the term. Through shared narratives and self-reflection students learn that struggle in engineering courses is normal and surmountable. Our prior work indicates that this message may serve as a protective mechanism for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students’ belonging and, subsequently, individual grades in their courses. As we continue to develop and study the intervention, we share our processes and additional findings in the proposed paper. First, we report on our initial efforts to assess fidelity in implementation of the intervention by course instructors and the impact of the intervention on instructors. Second, we report on our continued research on the efficacy of the intervention on student outcomes.

We hypothesize that the intervention is most effective when instructors follow the intervention protocol, share their stories of struggle authentically, and effectively facilitate small group discussions. We created an observation protocol to help assess the fidelity of intervention implementation in classroom settings. Graduate student research team members observed seven classes in which the instructors conducted the intervention. The observation protocol consisted of 15 quantitative items such as "facilitator shares a personal story" that observers rated on a 3-point scale: "did not observe," "needs improvement," and "accomplished well." Qualitative questions (n = 13) assessed additional aspects such as notes on the instructor-facilitator's body language. Qualitative interviews with instructors have also provided insight into faculty perspectives on intervention fidelity. With this data, we investigate how onboarding to the intervention impacts instructor beliefs, how instructor beliefs shape implementation, and the impact of facilitating the intervention on instructors' mindsets, attitudes, and practices. Further, the research team is using this information to improve facilitator training (e.g., ensuring implementers perform essential intervention tasks) and to check the observation protocol captures all of the essential observation aspects (clarifying what "adequate engagement" means).

Our research on the efficacy of the intervention on student outcomes continues across two lines. In the first, we seek to identify short-term impacts on course grades (i.e., individual work, final grade) and continued enrollment in engineering courses. Initial analyses have found limited direct impact on course grades, with more impact on individual assignment grades and continued enrollment. The second line seeks to identify the relationships between theoretically important psychosocial constructs such as belongingness, self-efficacy, fascination, and engineering identity in preparation for future longitudinal assessments of change following the intervention.

Authors

Dr. Linda DeAngelo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8508-5909 University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Linda DeAngelo is Associate Professor of Higher Education, Center for Urban Education Faculty Fellow, and affiliated faculty in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. DeAngelo studies social stratification, investigating how social inequities are produced, maintained, and interrupted. Currently her scholarship focuses on access to and engagement in faculty mentorship, the pathway into and through graduate education, and gender and race in engineering.
Dr. Allison Godwin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0741-3356 Cornell University [biography]

Allison Godwin, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. Her research focuses on how identity, among other affective factors, influences diverse students to choose engineering and persist in engineering. She also studies how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belonging and identity development. Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her research earned her a 2016 National Science Foundation CAREER Award focused on characterizing latent diversity, which includes diverse attitudes, mindsets, and approaches to learning to understand engineering students’ identity development. She has won several awards for her research including the 2021 Journal of Civil Engineering Education Best Technical Paper, the 2021 Chemical Engineering Education William H. Corcoran Award, the 2022 American Educational Research Association Education in the Professions (Division I) 2021-2022 Outstanding Research Publication Award, and the 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Research.
Charlie Díaz University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Charlie Diaz is a PhD student studying Higher Education at the University of Pittsburgh. They are a recipient of the K. Leroy Irvis Fellowship. Their research interests include minoritized student experiences in Higher Ed, student activism, and the development of inclusive policy and practice in Higher Ed.
Dr. Eric Trevor McChesney http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7831-9642 University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Eric McChesney (he/him) is a Postdoctoral Scholar for Psychosocial Interventions at Scale with the Learning Research and Development center at the University of Pittsburgh. His work focuses on the development of robust, transferrable psychosocial interventions that improve the outcomes of and environments experienced by women, people of color, and other historically-marginalized students pursuing degrees in Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Technology (STEM). A further strand of his research examines the development of interdisciplinarity in the sciences and works to define the mechanisms by which it is formed, identify the contexts conducive to its flourishing, and develop the educational experiences that accelerate its development.
Erica McGreevy University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Teaching Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Nelson O. O. Zounlomè University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Nelson O. O. Zounlome, Ph.D., is the Founder, CEO, and a mental health & academic thrive consultant through Liberate The Block (https://liberatetheblock.com/) ~ an agency dedicated to helping Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in higher ed thrive. Dr. Z. is also a first-generation college graduate, child of immigrants, and a published author. He is a former McNair Scholar, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine-Ford Foundation Fellow, Herman B. Wells Graduate Fellow, International Counseling Psychologist, former Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, and current Post-Doctoral Research Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Z.'s research program focuses on examining the impact of intersectional oppression on historically excluded groups & creating culturally relevant interventions to enhance their well-being. Within this framework, he studies academic persistence and mental wellness to promote holistic healing among BIPOC. He earned Bachelor's degrees in Psychology & Sociology, a Master's degree in Learning Science-Educational Psychology Track, and is a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University. In addition to work, Dr. Z. loves reading, discovering new music/art, outdoor activities, time with friends and family, and living a holistically full life.
Kevin Jay Kaufman-Ortiz http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-6488-7104 Purdue University [biography]

Kevin Jay Kaufman Ortiz holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus and is a licensed mathematics teacher by the Department of Education in Puerto Rico. Kevin is currently a Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering Education as well as a M.S. student in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. His interests currently lie in cultural identity, engineering culture, acculturation, transnational migration, decolonization, belonging, and inclusion of occupational migrants from the U.S. territories who are looking to pursue engineering degrees and work in the mainland U.S.
Anne-Ketura Elie University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Anne-Ketura Elie earned a BS degree in 2019 in psychology from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

She is currently a graduate student researcher at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her research interests are the factors that foster sense of belonging in academic settings, more specifically teacher-student relationship factors that promote student’s sense of belonging and adaptive meaning making.

Ms. Elie is also a member of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Gerard Dorvè-Lewis http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5542-2057 University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Gerard Dorvè-Lewis (he/him) is a higher education PhD student and scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. His broad research interests include emerging adulthood, equity and social justice in higher education, first-generation college students, Black students, and student success. Prior to beginning his doctoral journey, he worked full-time in student affairs at the University of Florida where he also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences.
Maricela Bañuelos University of California, Irvine [biography]

Maricela Bañuelos received her Sociology B.A. from the University of California, (UC) Santa Barbara in 2016, and graduated with Summa Cum Laude. She received her master’s in Educational Policy and Social Context from UC Irvine in 2020 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology at UC Irvine with an emphasis in Chicano Latino studies. Maricela was awarded the Ford Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in 2021, to support her doctoral research on issues of access and persistence in higher education. Her research centers the social mobility of first-generation college students, low-income students, and underrepresented students of color.
Dr. Matthew Bahnson http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-0134-0125 Purdue University [biography]

Matthew Bahnson is a Matthew Bahnson completed his Ph.D. in the Applied Social and Community Psychology program in at North Carolina State University. His previous training includes a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Northern Iowa and an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. Matthew’s research focuses on sociocultural inequality in engineering graduate education with the intention of increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in STEM graduate education. He is currently a research scientist in engineering education with the STRIDE Lab at Purdue University.
Kevin R. Binning http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5396-4183 [biography]

Social psychologist with an interest in diversity and belonging in STEM.
Prof. Natascha Trellinger Buswell http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8503-5787 University of California, Irvine [biography]

Natascha Trellinger Buswell is an associate professor of teaching in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She earned her B.S. in aerospace engineering at Syracuse University and her Ph.D. in engineering education at Purdue University. She is particularly interested in inclusive teaching conceptions and methods and graduate level engineering education.
Dr. Christian D Schunn University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Dr. Christian D. Schunn is a professor of Psychology, Intelligent Systems, and Learning Sciences and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a senior scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology.
Beverly Conrique University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Beverly Conrique is a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research seeks to understand social psychological and ecological influences in two topical areas: U.S. politics and education. Her research in education focuses on understanding how people’s experiences in educational domains are shaped by their subjective understandings of themselves and their social environment. She is also passionate about social justice and service work, both in her research and in her professional roles.
Liwei Chen University of Pittsburgh
Carlie Laton Cooper University of Georgia [biography]

Carlie is a doctoral student in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia (UGA). She earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UGA (2017) and a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from Georgia Southern University (2021). She has higher education experience in business affairs and academic advising. She researches structures that contribute to underrepresentation in STEM majors and is currently a Graduate Assistant for the UBelong Collaborative.
Rachel Kelly Forster University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Danielle V. Lewis http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7266-6328 SUNY Fredonia [biography]

Danielle Vegas Lewis, Ph.D is currently the SUNY PRODiG Fellow at SUNY Fredonia where she teaches sociology and gender courses. She also serves as a Research Associate for Dr. Linda DeAngelo at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research agenda aims to understand and disrupt the ways in which socially constructed identities allow for the reproduction of social inequality, with a focus on understanding the ways institutions of higher education and other social structures challenge or uphold hegemonic environments in which majority populations accumulate power that harms students underrepresented in certain contexts.
Dr. Jacqueline Rohde Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Jacqueline (Jacki) Rohde is the Assessment Coordinator in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her interests are in sociocultural norms in engineering and the professional development of engineering students.

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