Examining the Impact of Social Identities on Engineering College Students' Contributions to Teams

Contribution: This research-to-practice full paper uses a quantitative intersectional approach to examine how social identities (e.g., gender, race, and nationality) impact the ratings of contributions of engineering students in their course teams. Patterns in ratings of contribution across various demographic groups provide valuable insights for designing effective and inclusive teaching practices for diverse student populations, thereby enhancing equity in engineering education. Background: Team-based learning offers students great opportunities to learn. Existing research has underscored that student social identities play a critical role in determining student learning processes and fostering academic achievement. Research questions: 1) How do social identities, such as gender, race, and nationality, influence ratings of engineering college students' contributions to team? and 2) How can we characterize the intersectional effects of social identities on ratings of engineering college students' contributions to team? Methods: We collected data from over 1,700 college engineering students at a research-oriented university located in the Midwest region of the United States. Employing multilevel modeling, we investigated the relationship between engineering students' social identities and their ratings of contributions to course teams. Findings: Our investigation revealed that students' contributions to teams are statistically significantly associated with their intertwined social identities. White, male, and domestic students tended to be rated as contributing most to group conversations during the process of constructing ideas. However, these identities had a lesser influence on the execution of tasks in terms of idea enactments and their contributions to the overall team project. While White students were more likely to offer ideas, they were less inclined to encourage their peers' contributions compared to peers from other racial groups. International students, especially those from Asian backgrounds, were rated as contributing fewer ideas, which might reflect challenges in actively participating due to potential language barriers. Regardless of their race and nationality, female students were perceived as making more effort than their male counterparts.