Name: Self-Efficacy for Communication
Start: 2020-02-19T10:15:00-05:00
End: 2020-02-19T11:30:00-05:00
Location: E62-350

Self-Efficacy for Communication

The MIT Teaching + Learning Laboratory (TLL) partners with MIT educators, staff and administrators to create an educational environment where students are academically challenged, actively engaged, and personally supported.

MIT Teaching + Learning Lab

How much does MIT students’ self-efficacy for communication grow over four years?

E62-350

<p>Engineering educators have long recognized the importance of excellent communication skills, and they have created effective instructional and assessment practices.  Yet teaching communication remains a challenge.  
</p><p>This talk will report on the results of surveys administered at four institutions (two in the Northeast U.S. and two in Singapore) that asked students to report on their self-efficacy for professional communication. 
</p><p>The surveys were composed of questions on four types of communication —writing, oral presentation, visual literacy, and teamwork—which were then broken down into 44 sub-skills.  Students were asked to respond to the survey in their first semester and again in the semester before they graduated.  The analysis examined the deltas between first and last semesters, as well as differences that take into consideration gender and first language.  We also found variations in students’ self-efficacy among the sub-skills.  Growth in self-efficacy in communication was strongest at MIT in comparison to the other three institutions.  We will offer our hypothesis as to why the MIT results were so robust, and we hope audience members will explore these findings with us.
</p><p></p><h2>Learning outcomes:</h2><li>Gain an appreciation for the advantage of a systemic approach to the teaching and learning of communication skills.
</li><li>Discuss the potential role of communication in bolstering women’s self-confidence for engineering.
</li><li>Further an understanding of how to implement a multi-institutional, cross-cultural study of communication.
</li>

<h2>Seminar Speakers</h2><h3>Daniel Hastings</h3><p>Professor Hastings is the Department Head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  From 2014-2018, he was the CEO and Director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).  He joined the MIT faculty in 1985.  With over 30 years’ experience in academia, Professor Hastings was MIT’s Dean of Undergraduate Education from 2006 to 2013, head of the MIT Technology and Policy Program, and director of the MIT Engineering Systems Division.  He served on the National Science Board (2002-2008) where he championed engineering education and was a member of the influential Engineer of 2020 study authored by the National Academy of Engineering.</p><p>Professor Hastings is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA0, the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.  He served on the NASA Advisory Council, the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, the Defense Science Board, and several ad hoc committees on space technology, as well as on science and technology management and processes.  He has published over 120 papers, written a book on spacecraft environment interactions, and won five best papers awards.  His recent research is focused on Complex Space System Design.</p><p></p><h3>Lori Breslow  </h3><p>Dr. Breslow founded the Teaching + Learning Lab (TLL) and served as its director for eighteen years.  As director, she set strategy and priorities for TLL; developed and managed the research agenda, resulting in over 80 studies of educational innovation at MIT; and contributed to initiatives in STEM teaching and learning nationally and internationally.  </p><p>Besides the current study on communication, she does research on digital learning and on academic and social belonging.  Her research has been cited by American Education Research Association, the American Society of Engineering Education, the Wall Street Journal, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Education. Her paper on MOOCs, co-authored with MIT and Harvard colleagues, is one of the top two most-cited papers on the topic.</p><p>She has discussed her research at the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), spoken at The New York Times’s Schools for Tomorrow symposium, and presented keynotes at leading universities globally.  Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI).  Her latest book, co-edited with international colleagues, is Strengthening Teaching and Learning in Research Universities.  She is currently a senior lecturer at the Sloan School.</p><p></p><h3>Christina White</h3><p>Dr. White recently completed her postdoctoral engineering education research with Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.  During that time, she explored communication development in undergraduate engineering programs within the context of global competencies.  She completed her doctoral degree at Teachers College, Columbia University where she studied curriculum and teaching.  Upon graduation, Dr. White became the founding director of the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges Scholars &amp; K12 Partners Program at The University of Texas at Austin. </p><p>Dr. White consults globally with universities for interdisciplinary program development. She is a curriculum developer for the Museum of Science in Boston involved in designing the latest edition of the Engineering is Elementary curriculum.  She is the Director of Programs for 3 Day Startup and leads initiatives to activate entrepreneurial potential in students through experiential education and a global entrepreneurship ecosystem.  Her current research includes global competencies, entrepreneurship education, design-based pedagogy, and ways to attract and retain traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering. </p><h2></h2><h2></h2><h2></h2><h2></h2><h2></h2>

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