Assessment of Demographic Biases Associated With the Ground Rules System in a Large Undergraduate Engineering Course

Abstract

Despite more women and underrepresented students entering engineering, there are still gaps in achievement. A potential remedy is to establish equitable team dynamics during groupwork. Groupware systems have been implemented in the workforce and, recently, piloted in undergraduate lowerdivision education to establish team norms. Our prior work found that there was a significant association between gender and the utility of rules systems to establish team norms. To assess biases regarding gender and minority groups in the rules system, we examined the differences between rules chosen by individuals and teams based on demographic characteristics in a large engineering course. Students individually identified which rules were most important when working in a team, then formed teams and performed a “negotiation” to choose which rules the team would follow. We usedstatistical analyses to determine whether certain demographic factors predicted how influential an individual was during the selection process. We found that demographic and educational characteristics did not have a significant influence on decision-making for team rules. Furthermore, we found that female and first-generation students were more likely to select the rule “Play an active part in the team” than their male or continuing-generation peers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine King

Christine King ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine in Irvine, California.

Kameryn Denaro

Kameryn Denaro is a project scientist in the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, University of California Irvine in Irvine, California.

Brian Sato

Brian Sato is a professor of teaching in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California Irvine in Irvine, California.