2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

BOARD # 321: An Investigation of Team Conflicts Among First-Year Engineering Students (Year One of NSF PFE: RIEF)

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

Team-based design projects are an essential element of an undergraduate engineering curriculum. Many students in engineering programs are assigned their first long-term team-based design project in the context of interdisciplinary introductory engineering courses during their first semester on campus. Interpersonal conflict with teammates is a common challenge for students. Responding to team conflict promptly is a logistical challenge when the student-to-instructor ratio is high, as is often the case with large-enrollment introductory engineering courses.

The study context is a required first-semester Introduction to Engineering course taken by approximately 650 students every fall semester at a large public R1 university. The lead instructor (PI of this project) uses 28 undergraduate teaching assistants to provide additional instructional support. Because the teaching assistants are engineering undergraduates who have previously completed the course, they serve as near-peer mentors (NPMs) for students in the course. This NSF PFE: RIEF project aims to identify the root causes of student team conflicts and explore how NPMs respond to reports of student team members not contributing as expected. With this, we seek to develop a defensible logic model for a coaching program for NPMs that promotes equity-oriented strategies for identifying and responding to conflicts that arise during team-based design projects.

This paper presents preliminary results from two different survey instruments—Team Reflection Survey and Mentor Observation Survey—developed to collect confidential reflections on team conflict in the introductory engineering course at the end of the semester. The Team Reflection Survey collects data from students regarding their experiences with the incidence and severity of conflict within their team during the semester. This survey also asks if and how the students reported concerns with team conflicts during the semester and how they sought conflict resolution. The Mentor Observation Survey collects data from the NPMs to capture their impressions of team conflicts within the teams that they mentored. This survey includes questions about how the NPM noticed incidences of team conflict and how they responded to it. Insights into the nature of team conflicts from these two different perspectives are presented.

Authors

Dr. Haritha Malladi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8723-8964 University of Delaware [biography]

Haritha Malladi is an Assistant Professor of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering and the Director of First-Year Engineering at the University of Delaware. She received her Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India, and her MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University. She is a teacher-scholar working in the intersection of undergraduate engineering education, sustainable infrastructure, and community engagement. She teaches the introductory engineering course for all first-year undergraduate students in the College of Engineering at UD. Her undergraduate teaching experience includes foundational engineering mechanics courses like statics and strength of materials as well as courses related to sustainability and infrastructure. Her research interests are in foundational engineering education, sustainability in engineering curriculum, and green technologies in infrastructure.
Dr. Marcia Gail Headley http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3017-2834 University of Delaware [biography]

Dr. Headley is a Data Scientist at the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware. She specializes in the development of mixed methods research designs for educational research.
Dr. Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2989-7969 Towson University [biography]

Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Ph.D., is Professor of Science and Engineering Education in the Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences at Towson University. She has integrated engineering into courses for PreK-8 teacher candidates, developed and directed a graduate STEM program for PreK-6 teachers, and partnered with teachers to implement PreK-8 science-integrated engineering learning experiences. She has authored numerous engineering-focused teacher practitioner articles, chapters, and research articles, and presents her research regularly through the ASEE Pre-College Engineering Education Division, a division she has chaired. Her current research includes investigating how K-5 students plan, fail, and productively persist, and how simulated classroom environments can be used to help pre-service and in-service teachers practice facilitating discussions in science and engineering.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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