Author(s):
To better support engineering students and to create an inclusive educational environment, it is necessary to reimagine instructional methods and approaches. Asset-based practices help identify and integrate students’ lived experiences to enrich and strengthen their educational experiences. Faculty need to be supported in adopting existing or developing new asset-based techniques for undergraduate courses. Guided by self-determination theory, an understanding of implicit bias and stereotype threat, and the large existing body of research on asset-based pedagogy, we seek to support engineering student outcomes by empowering faculty with tools and strategies to incorporate asset-based practices in their courses. This talk will describe a three-year project focused on assessing the impact of asset-based practices in engineering design courses at a large, public, land-grant, Hispanic-serving institution in the southwestern United States, funded by the NSF IUSE:EDU program. A summary of the design and results from our professional development for faculty will be provided. The learning objectives, activities, hurdles faced, and adaptation necessary to successfully continue the project are also discussed. Additionally, we present comments shared by instructors related to our professional development, including common barriers to implementing educational innovations in their courses. A brief mention of how this project has evolved, unexpected lines of inquiry discovered during implementation, and extensions of this work on campus are made.
