Research Projects

The low numbers of women in engineering remains a concern, and prior research on students’ experiences demonstrates that classroom experiences and interactions with other students and faculty disproportionately cause negative experiences for female and other minority students and lead to attrition from engineering programs. For a variety of reasons, teamwork is one component of engineering education frequently experienced differently by women and other minority students than by male students. Given that teamwork is of central and increasing importance, it is vital that faculty members understand how to maximize gender inclusivity of their teamwork components. Special sessions, publications, and faculty training tools are just some of the expected outcomes of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. 

Teamwork is increasingly seen as an important component of engineering education programs. Employers and education researchers alike advocate teamwork as a means of developing skills that engineering graduates need. Yet, prior research has shown that there are numerous ways in which teamwork is gendered, and can lead to negative experiences for women and students from other underrepresented groups. This project began with an interview study in which it revealed that faculty members need tools and resources that will help them plan and facilitate more gender-inclusive teamwork. The relationships between teamwork and gender must be understood to best utilize the growing emphasis on teamwork and decrease women’s persistent under-representation in engineering education. To that end, an online training tool to help faculty members facilitate gender-inclusive teamwork in engineering and other fields is planned for development based upon initial research findings. It is planned to introduce this new training tool to Engineering Educators at many levels, including the Hawaii International Conference on Education and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).