EXPANDING UNDERSTANDING OF FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENT RETENTION AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS THROUGH SOCIAL STYLES ASSESSMENT

摘要

The retention of first-year engineering students and the development of their teamwork skills are both important concerns in engineering education. Factors that have been found to help predict retention and success in teams are student characteristics known as "style" (e.g., learning style, cognitive style). One criticism of these types of assessment is that they are potentially inaccurate due to their self-reporting format. The authors seek to deepen understanding of the relationship between student style, retention and team effectiveness through peer assessments of students' social styles. To that end, social style assessment and team training are discussed within the context of a first-year engineering projects course. Student retention of assessed students is also tracked into their third semester. Previous engineering education research on style has focused primarily on learning style and cognitive style with applications in team development, student retention and the integration of teaching and learning. For example, Jouaneh reports on a study performed over a four-year period in which the performance of undergraduate mechanical engineering students on team projects was correlated with their learning styles as measured by the Brain Dominance Model. Similarly, Ivy and colleagues examined the correlation between learning style and attrition in the first year. Jablokow and Parker describe an investigation of the relationships between the cognitive style of undergraduate engineering students and learning preferences in the classroom.