Developing and Analyzing an Online Cultural Mindset Module for Improving Multicultural Engineering Team Effectiveness

该项目旨在通过改善工程学生在多元文化团队中的工作方式来服务于国家利益。如今，作为一名成功的工程师需要多元文化的合作。为了帮助工程专业的学生提高他们的文化技能，许多工程课程将学生安排在多元文化的团队中。然而，有证据表明，这些团队中的学生经常与心理障碍作斗争，比如不信任，这阻碍了有效的合作。为了消除这些障碍，不同文化背景的学生需要培养支持有效合作的技能和才能。该项目旨在建立一个可扩展和可持续的工具，以帮助工程学生培养多元文化的团队合作技能。它将运用对心态的研究来开发一个在线学习模块，该模块将集成到工程入门课程中。该项目的研究结果将纳入CATME（团队成员效能综合评估），这是一个广泛使用的免费工具，用于组建和管理STEM和其他课程的本科生团队。实施在线学习模块有望改善不同STEM环境中的协作，并为工程专业的劳动力提供装备。为了提高工科学生的多元文化团队合作能力，该项目旨在分三个阶段开发一个文化思维模块。在第一阶段，项目团队将完成全面的文献综述、焦点小组访谈和对多元文化团队中的工程师的调查，并使用这些数据开发原型文化心态模块。第二阶段将确定团队中文化心态影响的机制，通过对当前本科工程专业学生的团队调查和迭代试点测试，生成知识以完善模块。第三阶段将通过第一年工程项目的随机对照试验和后续调查来确定该模块的有效性。期望参与的学生在多元文化团队合作中表现出更积极的态度和建设性的行为，从而改善团队氛围和绩效。项目研究结果将在工程教育和心理学会议和期刊上发布，该模块将在工程教育和文化学习资源库上发布。该项目产生的结果可能会促进未来对支持多元化社会的教育干预的研究，并推动在工程项目中创造更积极的跨文化关系和包容性氛围的努力。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving how engineering students work in multicultural teams. Success as an engineer today requires multicultural collaboration. To help engineering students sharpen their cultural skills, many engineering courses place students into multicultural teams. However, evidence suggests that students in these teams often struggle with psychological barriers, such as mistrust, that prevent effective collaboration. To mitigate these barriers, students of diverse cultural backgrounds need to develop the skills and aptitudes that support working together effectively. This project aims to build a scalable and sustainable tool to help engineering students develop multicultural teamwork skills. It will apply research about mindset to develop an online learning module that will be integrated into introductory engineering courses. Findings from the project will be incorporated into CATME (Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness), a widely used, freely available tool for forming and managing undergraduate teams in STEM and other courses. Implementing the online learning module is expected to improve collaboration in diverse STEM environments and equip engineering majors for the workforce.To improve engineering students’ multicultural teamwork skills, the project aims to develop a cultural mindset module in three stages. In stage 1, the project team will complete a comprehensive literature review, focus-group interviews, and a survey of engineers in multicultural teams and use these data to develop a prototype cultural mindset module. The second stage will determine mechanisms of cultural mindset effects in teams, generating knowledge to refine the module through a teamwork survey of current undergraduate engineering students and iterative pilot testing. The third stage will determine the module’s effectiveness with a randomized controlled trial in a first-year engineering program and follow-up surveys. It is expected that students who participate will demonstrate more positive attitudes and constructive behaviors in multicultural teamwork, resulting in improved climate and performance of their teams. Project findings will be disseminated in engineering education and psychology conferences and journals, and the module will be released on repositories of engineering education and cultural learning resources. The results generated by this project may catalyze future research on educational interventions that support a diverse society, as well as advance efforts to create more positive cross-cultural relations and inclusive climates in engineering programs. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.