Engineering is Not Neutral: Transforming Instruction via Collaboration and Engagement (ENNTICE)

工程学院需要加强多样性、公平和包容性（DEI），这一点从未如此清晰，但进展却令人沮丧地缓慢。多种证据表明，工程学院本身可能是这种需求的主要抑制因素。为什么?因为如果没有培训，教师的教学方式可能会在无意中排斥各种学生和学生群体。为了创建支持所有学生的组织文化，该项目将管理一个为期三年的教师学习社区（FLC），参与者来自科罗拉多大学丹佛分校（CU Denver）工程、设计和计算学院的所有五个部门。本FLC的首要目标是发现如何推动工程学院采用DEI的已知最佳实践。三个具体目标是：(1)在工程学院中培养正念，并部署已知的对少数族裔学生特别有益的最佳实践；(2)将包容性工程文化渗透到教学、科研和服务的各个环节；最重要的是：(3)培养学生的归属感和成功。综上所述，这些目标将使研究人员能够发现如何推动研究机构的教师采用DEI的已知最佳实践，特别是自我探究，课程设计，创建社区，建议，指导和合作。这项工作的理论框架改编自两个最近获得诺贝尔奖的行为经济学观点。第一个观点是，人们的直觉比理性更强，这指向了一种叫做“转型社区”的变化模型。第二个观点是，人们对推动做出反应，这指向了变化模型的分层。FLC将提供一个框架，通过纵向研究来测试这些想法，其中FLC教师是测试组，其余的工程学院是对照组。拟议的研究促进(1)妇女、残疾人和代表性不足的少数民族充分参与STEM；(2)发展多样化、具有全球竞争力的STEM劳动力队伍；(3)通过引导工程学院有意识地发展他们实施DEI已知最佳实践的能力，改善STEM教育和教育工作者的发展。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。

It has never been clearer that engineering colleges need strengthened diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but progress has been distressfully slow. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that engineering faculty themselves may be key inhibitors to this need. Why? Because without training, the way faculty teach may, unintentionally, exclude various students and student groups. In order to create organizational culture that supports all students, this project will administer a three-year faculty learning community (FLC) with participants from all five departments in the College of Engineering, Design and Computing at the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver). The overarching goal of this FLC is to discover how to nudge engineering faculty to adopt known best practices for DEI. The three specific goals are: (1) to develop mindfulness among engineering faculty and deploy best practices known to be especially beneficial for minoritized students; (2) to cultivate inclusive engineering culture into every aspect of teaching, research, and service; and the bottom line: (3) to foster student belonging and success. Taken together, these goals will allow the investigators to discover how to nudge faculty at research institutions to adopt known best practices for DEI, specifically self-inquiry, course design, creating community, advising, mentoring, and collegiality. The theoretical framework for this work is adapted from two recent Nobel-prize winning ideas from behavioral economics. The first idea is that people are more intuitive than rational, which points to a change model called communities of transformation. The second idea is that people respond to nudging, which points to the change model layering. The FLC will provide a framework to test these ideas using a longitudinal study in which the FLC faculty are the test group and the remainder of the engineering faculty are the comparison group. The proposed research promotes (1) full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in STEM; (2) development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce; and (3) improved STEM education and educator development by guiding engineering faculty to mindfully develop their capacity to implement known best practices for DEI.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.