Work in progress — Measuring cross-disciplinary team learning in undergraduate project teams

This work-in-progress study reports current research on a project funded by the National Science Foundation. The goal of the project is to develop and validate measures of cross-disciplinary learning in undergraduate project teams. The current study was carried out in a multidisciplinary, project-based, service learning program in a Midwest land-grant university. The research team developed four major learning objectives for cross-disciplinary team learning (CDTL) based on a theory-driven framework for CDTL. The purpose of the study is to better understand students' self-efficacy for four CDTL objectives developed for project-based design team environments. Initial survey measures of pre-post project confidence levels across these dimensions have been developed and piloted in Fall '09 semester and all partner programs have been invited to pilot these measures in the Spring '10 semester. Preliminary data shows that students' understanding of cross-disciplinary team learning was influenced by their prior experience working on multi-disciplinary teams, as well as their disciplinary and design knowledge. Finally, student reflections suggest that engagement in deep design discussions has an important integrating role relative to CDTL in project-based environments.

[1]  P. Gore.  Academic Self-Efficacy as a Predictor of College Outcomes: Two Incremental Validity Studies , 2006 .

[2]  S. Schaffer,et al.  A framework for cross‐disciplinary team learning and performance , 2008 .

[3]  B. Zimmerman,et al.  Self-regulation of learning and performance: Issues and educational applications. , 1994 .

[4]  Edmund Tsang,et al.  A Report on Service-Learning and Engineering Design: Service-Learning's Effect on Students Learning Engineering Design in 'Introduction to Mechanical Engineering' , 2001 .

[5]  Julie E. Mills,et al.  Engineering Education, Is Problem-Based or Project-Based Learning the Answer , 2003 .

[6]  Renate Fruchter,et al.  Mentoring Models In An A/E/C Global Teamwork E Learning Environment , 2001 .

[7]  Steven D. Brown,et al.  Relation of self-efficacy beliefs to academic outcomes: A meta-analytic investigation. , 1991 .

[8]  Rebecca Brent,et al.  Designing and Teaching Courses to Satisfy the ABET Engineering Criteria , 2003 .

[9]  Lucio Soibelman,et al.  Collaborative design processes: An active- and reflective-learning course in multidisciplinary collaboration , 2003 .

[10]  Maura Borrego,et al.  Characteristics of Successful Cross‐disciplinary Engineering Education Collaborations , 2008 .

[11]  Hee-Sun Lee,et al.  Measuring Engineering Design Self‐Efficacy , 2010 .

[12]  J. Eccles,et al.  Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. , 2002, Annual review of psychology.

[13]  Steven D. Brown,et al.  Self-efficacy in the prediction of academic performance and perceived career options. , 1986 .

[14]  Duane F. Shell,et al.  Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy Mechanisms in Reading and Writing Achievement. , 1989 .

[15]  A. Edmondson.  Speaking Up in the Operating Room: How Team Leaders Promote Learning in Interdisciplinary Action Teams , 2003 .

[16]  Dale H. Schunk,et al.  Sequential Attributional Feedback and Children's Achievement Behaviors , 1984 .

[17]  Marie C. Paretti,et al.  Identifying barriers to and outcomes of interdisciplinarity in the engineering classroom , 2009 .

[18]  Robert W. Stone,et al.  Team Conflict Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy of Business Students , 2007 .

[19]  Madara Ogot,et al.  Engineering Design: A Project-Based Introduction , 2004 .

[20]  M. Bong,et al.  Self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, academic self-efficacy, and internet self-efficacy in web-based instruction , 2000 .