Research Initiation: Exploring the role of innovation and social self-efficacy within a diverse engineering ecosystem at New Mexico State University's College of Engineering

作为一所西班牙裔服务机构，新墨西哥州立大学（NMSU）将自己标榜为自我发现和转变的地方。如何将这种“品牌化”实际转化为工程专业学生的教育经历是本提案的重点。新密歇根州立大学的工程学院（CoE）拥有多元化的学生群体，包括西班牙裔少数民族（57%）、第一代学生、非传统学生、英语学习者（ELL）和来自农村社区的学生。众所周知，这些独特的人口特征会影响学生的学习能力、个人对成功能力的看法以及坚持不懈的能力。这项工作的总体目标是加强来自不同背景的工程师的教育经验，并确定一套促进学生成功的创新和创业资源。第一个目标是将社会自我效能感，即学生能够成功的信念，与工程师的成功形成联系起来。该项目的第二个目标是吸取经验教训并加以传播。这项工作的影响来自于弱势学生独特的社会背景，这可能会影响他们的自我效能感。例如，学生相信他们能在工程领域取得成功的能力与他们“努力工作”的心态和内在的尝试新任务和失败的意愿有关，这两者至少部分是通过他们的文化背景发展起来的。相反，少数族裔所特有的社会影响会增加自我怀疑，并降低学生对自己选择的工程项目坚持不懈的信念。通过将自我效能感与这些文化因素联系起来，我们正在了解学生人口结构如何影响作为工程师的长期身份。在工程教育中，创新和创业的价值是众所周知的。新墨西哥州立大学工程学院，像许多机构一样，创造了资源、空间和机会，以增加具有创业精神的工程师的创造。尽管有这些努力，与社会认同相关的力量挑战创新自我效能（ISE）。我们认识到，社会影响在工程形成中起着重要作用，了解社会自我效能感如何与工程认同相关是很重要的。这项工作的智力价值通过两个主要的推动力解决了这种脱节。第一个重点是让工程专业的大一学生参与一项研究，旨在衡量社会认同、工程认同以及自我效能感与社会环境之间的相互关系。这项工作将包括一项类似干预的研究，该研究结合了元认知、企业家思维学习、设计思维活动，并通过模拟行业访谈、学生调查和与国家工程调查的比较来评估研究。第二个重点是主要研究人员的专业发展。目的是促进他们从工程教育的消费者到工程教育的生产者的转变。其目的是启动工程学院的教育研究，同时建立一种机制，在学院提供的核心课程中维持创业精神的学习。调查人员的活动包括与社会科学导师的互动，与话题教练的互动，团队教学，核心工程课程的转变，以及向其他工程学院的传播。这项工作的广泛影响是通过对不同工程学科中代表性不足的群体的强烈关注来解决的。该项目将通过以研究为基础的教学实践、工程专业少数民族学生的角色引导和社会化，以及通过超越学生和工程项目的文化价值的综合原则，发展社区参与的真正意义，从而产生切实可行的方法，增加未被充分代表的少数民族学生进入劳动力市场的保留率和进步。

As a Hispanic Serving Institution, New Mexico State University (NMSU) has branded itself as a place for self-discovery and transformation. How this "branding" actually translates to the educational experience of engineering students is the focus of this proposal. The College of Engineering (CoE) at NMSU has a diverse population of students composed of Hispanic minorities (57%), first-generation students, non-traditional students, English language learners (ELL), and students from rural communities. These unique demographics are known to impact student learning abilities, individual perception of the ability to succeed, and the ability to persevere. The overall goal of this work is to strengthen the educational experience of engineers from diverse backgrounds and identify the set of innovation and entrepreneurial resources that enhance student success. The first aim will be to correlate social self-efficacy, the belief students can succeed, to the successful formation of engineers. The second aim of this project will be to take what is learned and disseminate it. The impact of this work comes from the unique social backgrounds of underrepresented students that can impact their self-efficacy. For example, the ability for students to believe they can succeed in engineering is linked to their "hard working" mindset and inherent willingness to try new tasks and fail, both of which are at least partially developed through their cultural background. Conversely social influences that are unique to underrepresented minorities can increase self-doubt and decrease a student's belief that perseverance is possible in the engineering program of their choice. By correlating self-efficacy with these cultural factors we are developing an understanding of how student demographics affects long term identity as engineers. Much is known about the value of innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering education. The New Mexico State University College of Engineering, like many institutions, has created resources, spaces, and opportunities to increase the creation of engineers with entrepreneurial mindsets. Despite these efforts, forces related to social identity challenge innovation self-efficacy (ISE). It is recognized that social influence plays a significant role in engineering formation, and that it is important to understand how social self-efficacy is related to engineering identity. The intellectual merit of this work addresses this disconnect through two major thrusts. The first thrust is to involve freshmen engineering students in a study that aims to measure relationships between social identity, engineering identity and the interconnection between self-efficacy and social environments. This effort will include an intervention-like study that incorporates metacognition, entrepreneurial-minded learning, design thinking activities, and assessment of the study with mock industry interviews, student surveys, and comparison to a national engineering survey. The second thrust will focus on the professional development of the principal investigators. The aim is to foster their transition from consumers of engineering education to producers of engineering education. The intent is to initiate both engineering faculty into educational research and simultaneously establish a mechanism to sustain entrepreneurial minded learning throughout core classes offered in the college. Activities by the investigators include interaction with a social sciences mentor, interaction with topical-coaches, team teaching, transformation of core engineering courses, and dissemination to other engineering faculty. The broader impacts of this work are addressed by a strong focus on underrepresented groups across the different disciplines of engineering. The project will result in practical ways to increase retention and progression of underrepresented minority students into the workforce through research-based teaching practices, role induction and socialization of minority students in engineering, and developing a true meaning of community engagement through integrated principles transcending the cultural values of the student and the engineering program.