Developing leaders by putting students in the curriculum development driver seat

Abstract

Upon graduation, engineers entering the workforce are not always trained to work in a collaborative environment where a detailed understanding of common business, project management, and leadership skills may be required. In order to create a paradigm shift in engineering education, where students' capacities are pushed beyond their limits in order to redefine what an engineer is and develop these skill sets, Engineering Leadership (E-Lead) students at The University of Texas at El Paso have taken ownership of not only their own education, but the education of future students. In order to develop students as leaders, the current Introduction to Engineering Leadership course has been developed and taught by second year Engineering Leadership students. Second year students were placed in educator/mentor positions in order to develop their leadership skills. The purpose of the course was not only to give second year students a leadership opportunity and an understanding of the importance of guiding people, but also to introduce a unique culture being created in the Engineering Leadership program and provide leadership models for incoming students to learn from second year students. These second year students, also called Mavericks, worked closely with Engineering Leadership faculty, as well as faculty from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (Needham, MA), throughout the summer in order to develop curriculum for the incoming cohort of students in the fall of 2014. The goal of the course was to create an immersive learning environment that was also social, relatable, and inspiring to the instructors and the students. In order to achieve that goal, the Mavericks were given the opportunity to teach the course. The curriculum developed by the students was created to focus on three major disciplines: leadership identity development, innovative thinking, and hands on skills. These disciplines were taught in a studio environment through group discussions and interactive individual and group projects. This redesign effort by students not only resulted in a refined curriculum for the E-Lead program, but also improved the course by increasing the feeling of community for incoming students and thereby increased retention in the course from 60% to 92% (measured by the ratio of students that completed the course to those enrolled as of census day). More importantly, this experience of being placed in the curriculum development driver seat, also served to help the Mavericks redefine leadership, gain a better understanding of leadership, and increase their leadership skills (4.5, STDV 0.55; 4.67, STDV 0.52; 4.67, STDV 0.52; based on an ordinal scale with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree). The experience also helped them increase their Character, Competence, and Capacity (4.67, STDV 0.52; 4.33, STDV 0.82; 4.92, STDV 0.20). The Mavericks also agreed that the experience helped them increase their innovative problem solving and thinking skills (4.17, STD 0.41) and develop their identity (4.25, STDV 0.76). Overall, this research demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of allowing students to develop their leadership skills through taking on the role of instructor in an introductory engineering course.