Growth Mindset Beliefs During Engineering Internships: An Empirical Study of Undergraduate Women Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Culturally Responsive Approaches to Equity in STEM+CS

Abstract

Gender disparity in the engineering workplace continues to persist. Growth mindset interventions have shown promise in narrowing the achievement gap between women and men across many disciplines, including engineering. Building on existing literature, the present study explores the mindsets women hold as they enter the workplace. Semi-structured interviews and surveys were conducted with 14 undergraduate women in engineering. Results suggest that most students view social intelligence as key to internship success and tend to hold a growth mindset about it. They also identified social and individual factors that support this mindset. These findings highlight the need for further research and can inform the development of growth mindset interventions to support women’s career development in engineering.

Authors

• Jing (Crystal) Zhang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Emma M. Mercier, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign