2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Teamwork is an important tool in engineering education to improve learning outcomes, prepare students for the workforce, and reduce attrition. Collaborative learning has been codified into the ABET Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs to ensure that future generations of engineers possess can navigate the social landscape of the engineering profession. These requirements are reflected in engineering capstone courses, whereby undergraduates apply their conceptual knowledge to real-world industry design challenges. However, the success of student teams largely depends on social factors beyond the scope of course curricula. Female students in mixed-gender engineering capstone groups previously reported experiencing a disproportionate workload compared to their male peers due to false praise attribution, academic malalignment, and discouragement from participation in the technical aspects of the project (Camarillo, et al. 2020). Furthermore, past studies suggest that men take on more active technical roles while women serve organizational needs (e.g., scheduling meetings, distributing agendas, etc.) in first-year engineering student group project presentations — a phenomenon that may be driven by gender stereotyping and/or differences in self-efficacy (Meadows, et al. 2013). This paper builds on previous capstone research studying team inclusivity and utilizes the Team Learning Beliefs and Behaviors (TLBB) Model to evaluate how gender impacts social cohesion and task cohesion in senior engineering capstone teams, as well as the influence of gender on self-efficacy and role determination in groups. This study took place at an R1 University and involved a 15-minute voluntary survey that included information about demographics and student perceptions of effective teams. TLBB dimensions were measured using scales taken from validated questionnaires (Van den Bossche, et.al. 2006). The results of this paper will provide insight into social factors impacting team performance, as well as the role of gender is team dynamics, to improve learning outcomes in capstone engineering courses in the future.