(554c) An Inclusive Teaching Practice Intervention in Two Graduate Chemical Engineering Classes

There is a critical need for more, and more diverse, engineers in the U.S. (Anderson et al., 2018; Brooks, 2020). Lack of representation in engineering fields increases as level of education increases (i.e., engineers with doctoral degrees are a less racially and ethnically diverse group than those with bachelor’s degrees; Anderson et al., 2018). Creating a more diverse engineering workforce begins with increasing the diversity of engineering students. Many attempts to increase the diversity of the engineering student population focus on recruitment, but retention of students is also critical (Woolston, 2021). Many retention programs are grounded in a student affairs perspective and emphasize support and engagement outside of the classroom (e.g., student affinity groups). Particularly at the graduate level, however, positive classroom experiences are critical to student success. The specific goal of this work was to promote inclusive teaching practices in a chemical engineering graduate program, with a particular focus on two core chemical engineering graduate courses (a required technical course for first year graduate students and a required seminar course for all graduate students in the program). Specifically, changes were made to the syllabus to make it more anti-racist, by following established best practices in syllabus design. More active learning activities and group discussions were designed and implemented and will be discussed in more detail.

Data were collected to examine the impact of this microintervention on students’ self-reported perceptions of department climate, classroom engagement, and sense of belonging. In order to examine the impact of the microintervention on students, we compared pre-intervention data (from a survey of the full department in February 2022) to post-intervention data (from a survey of students in one of the core intervention courses in May 2022). Results indicated that compared to the full department, students in the intervention group reported similar levels of classroom engagement and sense of belonging, but had more positive perceptions of climate within the department. These finding suggest that even relatively minor changes to teaching in core graduate courses can impact students’ feelings of inclusion within their graduate programs, and that more intensive interventions might have even larger impacts on student attitudes and retention.

References

Anderson, E. L., Williams, K. L., Ponjuan, L., & Frierson, H. (2018). The 2018 Status Report on Engineering Education: A Snapshot of Diversity in Degrees Conferred in Engineering. Association of Public & Land-grant Universities. https://www.aplu.org/library/the-2018-status-report-on-engineering-educa...

Brooks, J. (2020). Why Should I Care About Diversity in Engineering? National Society of Professional Engineers. https://www.nspe.org/resources/pe-magazine/july-2020/why-should-i-care-a...

Woolston, C. (2021). Minority representation in US science workforce sees few gains. Nature, 592, 805-806. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01089-6