2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Recent literature points toward the benefits of cognitive diversity in building a more creative engineering workforce. Still, despite the potential of neurodiverse individuals, such as autistic students, students with ADHD and/or dyslexia to leverage their unique assets to contribute to innovative solutions to engineering problems, they remain highly underrepresented in engineering majors. Thus, a department-level initiative was established as part of a National Science Foundation Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (NSF:RED) grant at a large, research intensive (R1) institution to foster a radically inclusive culture that enhances the participation and sense of belonging of neurodiverse students in engineering. The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors of neurodiverse students' sense of belonging in engineering, assessing both classroom and out-of-classroom experiences in department courses. A survey related to student experiences in engineering courses was administered and data from 144 respondents were included for analysis. Factor analysis identified five classroom-specific factors (engagement, instructional quality, inclusion, learning development, and disengagement) and two out-of-classroom influencing factors (belonging and community access). Multiple regression models and independent sample t-tests were employed to determine the significant predictors of sense of belonging in engineering. The study found that classroom inclusion was the only significant predictor of belonging and could predict it positively to a moderate degree. Further, it was found that students in revised inclusive courses reported significantly stronger feelings of inclusion and belonging than their peers in traditional courses. These findings suggest that systematic efforts to implement inclusive learning practices in engineering education may contribute to a sense of belonging for neurodiverse students.