CAREER: Improving Peer Interactions in Engineering: An Exploration of Peer Behaviors in Engineering Classrooms

About This Grant

Engineers need to create robust solutions for society through technological, infrastructural, and medical advancements. To accomplish such tasks requires that they effectively work on teams with people from a variety of backgrounds. Effective teamwork involves skills to promote positive collaboration such as addressing challenging interpersonal situations. This project will identify the ways engineering undergraduate peers interact with each other in the classroom and whether or not they have self-awareness about their behaviors toward others. The project also aims to determine whether certain teaching practices positively influence peer interactions in engineering. The findings of the study will help instructors across engineering disciplines, through their teaching practices, help their students learn how to prevent negative peer interactions so they can effectively work on teams, a key skill needed for productivity in the engineering workforce. By focusing on peer interaction during undergraduate education, the domestic engineering workforce will be better equipped with the relational skills, including collaboration and cooperation, necessary to promote advancements in engineering at a more efficient pace. Overall, this study will improve teaching and learning practices and foster positive peer interactions in engineering classrooms, which will contribute to a more effective engineering workforce, which will in turn support the United States in achieving global competitiveness. This study aligns with the goals of NSF (1) to develop an innovative and inclusive technical workforce and (2) to improve inclusion and participation in engineering by addressing structural issues within educational systems. The goal of this CAREER grant is to advance research on peer interaction in engineering classrooms and how instructors may mitigate negative interactions to enhance student’s abilities to work on teams to improve classroom learning experiences. This study examines (1) why and how peers develop their cultural beliefs about engineering; (2) whether or not peers are aware of negative behaviors they witness or enact themselves; and (3) whether faculty instructional practices focused on positive peer behaviors can mitigate negative peer behaviors. In Year 1, an intake survey will be sent to a broad array of engineering networks to determine eligibility for participating in the preliminary research. The initial part of the study will involve instructor interviews, undergraduate peer interviews, and a peer survey. In Year 2 & 3, 2-3 courses will be selected from four case study sites, representative of R1s and R2 universities, to conduct observations of labs and/or classrooms and interview both instructors and students. During Years 3 & 4, data will be analyzed and developed into scenario-based learning videos and a toolkit for instructors that would include resources and strategies to help facilitate positive peer cooperation. In Year 5, integration of research and education activities will include a video campaign utilizing various STEM and engineering networks and the case study institutions. Podcasts as well as workshops, online and in-person trainings, webinars, and presentations at local and national engineering conferences will promote the research and educational activities. This research will advance knowledge in engineering education by contributing to the scholarship on teaching and learning (SoTL) and will provide practical tools and resources to support instructors in enhancing the classroom learning experience of all engineering students. The research overall will contribute to societal well-being, improvements in STEM education and the STEM workforce, and foster the inclusive participation of all students in engineering. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.