Medha Dalal - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Medha Dalal

2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2020

This Research Work in Progress paper presents a case study that demonstrates how a secondary scho... more This Research Work in Progress paper presents a case study that demonstrates how a secondary school teacher with a non-STEM background identifies parallels between the engineering design process and music creation to embrace teaching an engineering course for the first time. Multiple interviews and classroom observations were open coded using a two-cycle coding approach to reveal four themes: overcoming imposter syndrome, connections between engineering and music, challenges encountered, and changes in practice. These themes highlight the processes involved in transferring a pedagogical philosophy that can inform future efforts to explore the necessary preconditions for bridging seemingly disparate and unconnected content areas. Further exploration building on these findings will inform efforts to broaden the pool of teachers capable of teaching pre-college engineering classes.

Eunsil Lee is a postdoctoral associate at Florida International University in the School of Unive... more Eunsil Lee is a postdoctoral associate at Florida International University in the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Clothing and Textiles from Yonsei University (South Korea) with the concentration area of Nanomaterials and Biomaterials in Textiles. She began her Ph.D. study in Textile Engineering but shifted her path toward Engineering Education, earning her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Arizona State University. Her research interests center on inclusion in engineering with focuses on students’ sense of belonging, faculty and peer interactions, diversity in citizenship, and engineering doctoral education. Prior to her Ph.D., She worked as a research associate at the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, Carbon Composite Materials Research Center.

Despite numerous calls to increase representation of women and minorities, the engineering educat... more Despite numerous calls to increase representation of women and minorities, the engineering education system is still challenged to be more inclusive of women and underrepresented minorities. Scholars have suggested that the imbalance is largely related to sociocultural factors and prevalent stereotypes and implicit biases. This study investigated how high school teachers characterize engineering stereotypes, stereotype threat, and implicit biases, and conceive their roles and responsibilities amid calls for inclusivity in the field. Data was collected through focus group interviews during a professional development effort for high school teachers. Thematic analysis revealed teacher perspectives of long-standing issues affecting diversity in engineering especially in the frameworks of social culture. The study has implications for research as well as practice by providing insight into stereotype threats and implicit biases from the K-12 teacher angle and laying out grass roots soluti...

This work describes the instructional design process used by an interdisciplinary team of enginee... more This work describes the instructional design process used by an interdisciplinary team of engineering and education faculty working together, at a NSF-funded Engineering Research Center, to create an introductory module on biogeotechnical engineering. We describe how the principles of learning theories and instructional design were applied to provide an introduction to a complex engineering domain using direct instruction, multimedia, and numerous instructional activities to explore technical topics. In addition, informative slides on geotechnical career trends and career options were included to spark student interest in the emerging field of biogeotechnics. The promising instructional design strategies outlined here address a few critical issues related to building engaging and effective content for incoming students and could be applied to other domains.

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology

This study investigated the impact of a semester-long technology course as part of a higher educa... more This study investigated the impact of a semester-long technology course as part of a higher education cultural exchange program for secondary school teachers of developing nations. We integrated quantitative data from surveys that evaluated participants’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), with qualitative evidence from participants’ technology-based lesson designs. Analysis across the 16 participants indicated that the course was effective in improving teachers’ TPACK. Teachers reported increases in all TPACK domains, with the largest growth in technological content knowledge and TPACK. However, qualitative analysis suggested greater presence of technological pedagogical knowledge. Teachers learned to consider affordances of technology in accordance with content or pedagogy, but their ability was limited due to resource constraints or students’ readiness. Results suggest that international exchange programs are a valuable way to support teachers of developing natio...

Journal of Research on Technology in Education