2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Integrating Service Learning and the Entrepreneurial Mindset in a Teaching and Leadership Course for Graduate Teaching Assistants

This work builds on previous efforts describing a training course for engineering Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) at a large midwestern university. The course presents teaching and leadership topics as transferable skills that benefit GTAs whether they pursue careers in industry or academia.[1, blinded] One innovation in the course is an optional service learning project wherein GTAs design and deliver educational content to a local K–12 classroom. In another previous paper, we compared the impact of the project on the GTAs who chose to participate in the project versus those who did not. We used the TPACK framework as an assessment tool to show which knowledge domains had been developed throughout the semester. GTAs' pedagogical knowledge, as well as other domains in TPACK, showed significant growth from the teaching and learning course.[2, blinded] A subsequent framework built on each lesson topic was then employed. For each of the categories, there was also a significant development within the pedagogical knowledge topics [3, blinded].

In the fall semester of 2024, the service learning project was modified to utilize the KEEN Framework on Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning (EML) by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN). Project participants were introduced to the framework in a workshop and then asked to use it to design university-level content. Upon instructor review, the content is then evaluated for publishability to the engineeringunleashed.com website, which is the online community where members of KEEN may share the educational content (“KEEN Cards”) that they have developed using EML.

An optional following track to the Service Learning project is made available where GTAs can gain additional credit in the course by modifying their first KEEN Card for applicability to a K–12 classroom. Undergraduate Teaching Catalysts (TCs), who are pre-service teachers from the College of Education, make connections with local K–12 teachers and create profiles of them and their classrooms. The TCs also lead workshops where they guide the GTAs to modify their content for delivery to the K–12 students. Near the end of the semester, the GTAs visit the classrooms and lead the students in the exercises that they developed.

“Pre-flection” and reflection surveys are administered to the GTAs before and after the project. Statistical analysis will be conducted to determine the effectiveness of the two tracks of the project for helping the GTAs to understand the EML framework and to improve their teaching abilities.

Authors

Dr. Blake Everett Johnson University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Blake Everett Johnson is a Teaching Associate Professor and instructional laboratory manager in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include experimental fluid mechanics, measurement science, engineering education, engineering leadership, and professional identity development.
Joshua E. Katz http://orcid.org/0009-0001-3320-2536 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Joshua E. Katz is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, DELTA program, at UIUC, where his research centers on collaborative learning in engineering education and other STEM disciplines. He obtained his B.S. in Technology and Engineering Education in 2019 and his M.S. in STEM Education and Leadership in 2021 from Illinois State University. Additionally, he holds a professional educator license for secondary education in Technology and Engineering Education in Illinois.
Ms. Hyena Cho University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Hyena Cho is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, concentrating on Human Resource Development. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in Education from Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea), with a concentration in Human Resource Development, and holds a teaching certification (Secondary Education) in South Korea. Before pursuing her Ph.D., she worked as a medical education researcher at Ajou University Medical Center. Her research focuses on workplace and organizational learning to foster inclusion and creativity, with a particular interest in STEM and medical fields for adult learners.
Prof. Yuting W. Chen University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Yuting W. Chen received the B.S. degree from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2007, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2009 and 2011, all in Electrical Engineering. She is currently a Teaching Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Director of Women in Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her current interests include recruitment and retention of under-served students in STEM, leadership development for undergraduate and graduate students, and curriculum innovation in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Dr. Marcia Pool http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2813-4217 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Marcia (“Marci”) Pool is the Assistant Director for Education at the Cancer Center at Illinois and a Teaching Associate Professor in Bioengineering. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, has served for sixteen years as teaching faculty/staff in biomedical/bioengineering and nine years in departmental/institute educational administration, and is an ABET program evaluator for Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering. She focuses on identifying and evaluating mechanisms to enhance the educational experience and develop students into engineers and researchers. Her work includes interventions to enhance training for high school students, undergraduate students, and predoctoral (graduate students) and postdoctoral trainees through training programs such as NIH T32s. These programs include curricular, extracurricular, and professional and career development components with required evaluation and tracking of student participants.
Mr. Saadeddine Shehab University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

I am currently the Associate Director of Assessment and Research team at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I work with a group of wonderful and talented people at SCD’s Assessment and Research Laboratory to conduct research that informs and evaluates our practice of teaching and learning human-centered design in formal and informal learning environments.

My Research focuses on studying students’ collaborative problem solving processes and the role of the teacher in facilitating these processes in STEM classrooms.

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