Teaching Undergraduate Engineering Students Gratitude, Meaning, and Mindfulness

Abstract

is a Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. At Purdue, she created and currently teaches a novel course for undergraduate engineering students to explore the intersections of wellbeing, leadership, diversity and inclusion. As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, her research interests intersect the fields of engineering education, positive psychology, and human development to understand diversity, inclusion, and success for undergraduate engineering students. Prior to Purdue, she received dual bachelor's degrees in Industrial Engineering and Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her prior work experiences include product management, consulting, tutoring, marketing, and information technology.

A Scoping Literature Review of Engineering Thriving to Redefine Student Success

“…When we examined broader categories of competencies together at the level of engineering thriving, we discovered that competencies were highly connected and functioned as pieces of the same broader system. These findings are consistent with prior research on engineering thriving interventions, which suggest that internal competencies work together to influence a student's experience of undergraduate engineering and, thus, should be studied together with as many other competencies as possible (Ge et al 2019). Just as all components of a system must work synergistically for optimal functioning, the broader perspective of engineering thriving suggests that students' competencies should ideally be studied together.…”

No time for that? An investigation of mindfulness and stress in first-year engineering design

“…However, some interventions of longer duration (i.e., multiple weeks) have been shown to improve engineering students’ software development (Bernárdez et al 2014) and conceptual modelling (Bernárdez et al 2018). Also, a one-credit course for engineering students based on positive psychology research found that students’ noncognitive competencies like mindfulness can be taught and developed (Ge et al 2019) and engineering students were receptive to practicing mindfulness in an online class during the COVID-19 pandemic (Miller & Jensen 2020). While not directly related to engineering design, these results suggest that mindfulness practice applies to engineering and would be successful if included in engineering courses.…”

A Sociocultural Learning Framework for Inclusive Pedagogy in Engineering

“…Promoting mindfulness and reflection through even a 15-minute exercise has been linked to better problem solving and innovation [94] as well as feelings of belonging and motivation. [95,96] A range of research indicates that communicating care can support students as well. Instructors' behaviors that communicate care beyond "just teaching" support students' academic success (refer to Chang [97] and Chhoun and Wallace [98] , particularly for students from excluded groups).…”