Award Abstract # 2044390
Developing and Analyzing an Online Cultural Mindset Module for Improving Multicultural Engineering Team Effectiveness

NSF Org: DUE
Division Of Undergraduate Education
Recipient: PURDUE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: February 24, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: May 20, 2021
Award Number: 2044390
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Nasser Alaraje
nalaraje@nsf.gov
 (703)292-8063
DUE
 Division Of Undergraduate Education
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: February 15, 2021
End Date: January 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $299,974.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $299,974.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $299,974.00
History of Investigator:
  • Franki Kung (Principal Investigator)
  • Brent Jesiek (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Sang Eun Woo (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Kris Acheson-Clair (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Purdue University
2550 NORTHWESTERN AVE # 1100
WEST LAFAYETTE
IN  US  47906-1332
(765)494-1055
Sponsor Congressional District: 04
Primary Place of Performance: Purdue University
703 3rd Street
West Lafayette
IN  US  47907-2081
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
04
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): YRXVL4JYCEF5
Parent UEI: YRXVL4JYCEF5
NSF Program(s): IUSE
Primary Program Source: 04002122DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 8209, 9178
Program Element Code(s): 199800
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Chhikara, Alankrita and Lapka, Samantha and Jesiek, Brent K and Kung, Franki_Y H "Intercultural Readiness: Mapping Effective Teamwork Strategies in Engineering Teams to the Intercultural Development Continuum" , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10892844 Citation Details
Huang, Hsuan-Che (Brad) and Yang, Zhixu (Rick) and Kung, Franki Y. "Employees mindset matters: Leveraging cultural mindset to harness the benefits of organizational polyculturalism" Industrial and Organizational Psychology , v.16 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2023.34 Citation Details
Kung, Franki Y. and Brienza, Justin P. and Chao, Melody M. "Mixed reactions to multicultural (vs. Colorblind) diversity approach signals: A lay theories of culture perspective." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000409 Citation Details

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