Browsing by Author "Fore, Grant A."

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Building capacity for socio-ecological change through the campus farm: A mixed-methods study
    (Taylor & Francis, 2022) Williamson, Francesca A.; Rollings, Amber J.; Fore, Grant A.; Angstmann, Julia L.; Sorge, Brandon H.; Engineering Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Given the ongoing socio-ecological crises, higher education institutions need curricular interventions to support students in developing the knowledge, skills, and perspectives needed to create a sustainable future. Campus farms are increasingly becoming sites for sustainability and environmental education toward this end. This paper describes the design and outcomes of a farm-situated place-based experiential learning (PBEL) intervention in two undergraduate biology courses and one environmental studies course over two academic years. We conducted a mixed-method study using pre/post-surveys and focus groups to examine the relationship between the PBEL intervention and students’ sense of place and expressions of pro-environmentalism. The quantitative analysis indicated measurable shifts in students’ place attachment and place-meaning scores. The qualitative findings illustrate a complex relationship between students’ academic/career interests, backgrounds, and pro-environmentalism. We integrated these findings to generate a model of sustainability learning through PBEL and argue for deepening learning to encourage active participation in socio-ecological change.
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    Empathy and ethical becoming in biomedical engineering education: A mixed methods study of an animal tissue harvesting laboratory
    (Taylor & Francis, 2021) Hess, Justin L.; Miller, Sharon; Higbee, Steven; Fore, Grant A.; Wallace, Joseph; Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
    Biomedical engineering presents a unique context for ethics education due to the human-centric nature of biomedical engineering coupled with the pervasiveness of animal-based practices. This study summarises the design of a pedagogical practice intended to enhance students’ abilities to recognise ethical issues in biomedical engineering practice and inquire into normative aspects of the discipline. The context of the study is an introductory biomechanics course wherein students harvested animal tissue, critically reflected on this experience, and discussed the experience in class. We brought two theoretical frameworks to this investigation pertaining to empathy and ethical becoming. We employed a four-phase mixed methods research design that included quantitative comparisons of changes in empathy and related phenomena, thematic analysis of written reflections, an observation and focus group, and triangulation of these results. Quantitative data remained stable before and after the course. Thematic analysis of reflections revealed five themes: research design, treatment of animals, beneficence, worth of life, and emotional engagement. The observational and focus group results emphasise affective considerations of engineering practice. This study provides a guide for future biomedical engineering education efforts that deal with ethically sensitive, emotionally powerful, and visceral experiences, as well as for research pertaining to empathy and ethical becoming.
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    Exploring Ethical Development from Standard Instruction in the Contexts of Biomedical Engineering and Earth Science
    (ASEE, 2019-06) Hess, Justin L.; Fore, Grant A.; Sorge, Brandon H.; Coleman, M. A.; Price, Mary F.; Hahn, Thomas William; Technology and Leadership Communication, School of Engineering and Technology
    Ethics continues to be required in the accreditation of engineers. However, ethics is seldom the core focus of departmental instruction. Yet, standard instruction may have myriad impacts on students' ethical development. This study explores students’ ethical formation when ethics is a peripheral or non-intentional aspect of instruction in departmental courses in Biomedical Engineering and Earth Science. The research question that we seek to address is, “In what different ways and to what extent does participation in departmental engineering and science courses cultivate STEM students’ ethical formation?” To address our research question, we disseminated a survey to students before (pre) and after (post) their participation in one of 12 courses offered in Earth Science or Biomedical Engineering during the Fall 2017 or Spring 2018. The survey included four instruments: (1) the Civic-Minded Graduate scale; (2) the Interpersonal Reactivity Index; (3) two relational constructs developed by the authors; and (4) the Defining Issues Test-2. Results suggest that current Earth Science curriculum, overall, positively contributes to students' ethical growth. However, the Biomedical Engineering courses showed no evidence of change. As the Earth Science courses do not explicitly focus on ethics, one potential explanation for this trend is the community-engaged nature of the Earth Science curriculum. These findings will be beneficial locally to help direct improvements in departmental STEM instruction. In addition, these findings pave the way for future comparative analyses exploring how variations in ethical instruction contribute to students' ethical and professional formation. © 2019 American Society for Engineering Education
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    The Integrating Community Engaged Learning through Ethical Reflection (ICELER) Faculty Learning Community Theory of Change and Learning Goals, Years 1-4
    (Stem Education Innovation & Research Institute and the IUPUI Center for Service and Learning, 2022-09-04) Price, Mary F.; Coleman, Martin A.; Fore, Grant A.; Sorge, Brandon H.; Hahn, Tom; Sanders, Elizabeth; Nyarko, Samuel Cornelius; Hatcher, Julie A.
    This document presents the final ICELER theory of change, including annually generated FLC goals that were part of a multi-year institutional transformation grant #1737157 entitled Institutional Transformation: Enhancing IUPUI STEM Curriculum through the Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection Framework (I-CELER)
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    An Introduction to the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection Framework (I-CELER)
    (ASEE, 2018-07) Fore, Grant A.; Hess, Justin L.; Sorge, Brandon; Price, Mary F.; Coleman, Martin A.; Hahn, Thomas William; Hatcher, Julie Adele; Technology and Leadership Communication, School of Engineering and Technology
    Cultivating ethical Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics researchers and practitioners requires movement beyond reducing ethical instruction to the rational exploration of moral quandaries via case studies and into the complexity of the ethical issues that students will encounter within their careers. We designed the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection (I-CELER) framework as a means to promote the ethical becoming of future STEM practitioners. This paper provides a synthesis of and rationale for I-CELER for promoting ethical becoming based on scholarly literature from various social science fields, including social anthropology, moral development, and psychology. This paper proceeds in five parts. First, we introduce the state of the art of engineering ethics instruction; argue for the need of a lens that we describe as ethical becoming; and then detail the Specific Aims of the I-CELER approach. Second, we outline the three interrelated components of the project intervention. Third, we detail our convergent mixed methods research design, including its qualitative and quantitative counterparts. Fourth, we provide a brief description of what a course modified to the I-CELER approach might look like. Finally, we close by detailing the potential impact of this study in light of existing ethics education research within STEM.
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    Measurement in STEM education research: a systematic literature review of trends in the psychometric evidence of scales
    (Springer, 2023) Maric, Danka; Fore, Grant A.; Nyarko, Samuel Cornelius; Varma‑Nelson, Pratibha
    Background: The objective of this systematic review is to identify characteristics, trends, and gaps in measurement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education research. Methods: We searched across several peer-reviewed sources, including a book, similar systematic reviews, conference proceedings, one online repository, and four databases that index the major STEM education research journals. We included empirical studies that reported on psychometric development of scales developed on college/university students for the context of post-secondary STEM education in the US. We excluded studies examining scales that ask about specific content knowledge and contain less than three items. Results were synthesized using descriptive statistics. Results: Our final sample included the total number of N = 82 scales across N = 72 studies. Participants in the sampled studies were majority female and White, most scales were developed in an unspecified STEM/science and engineering context, and the most frequently measured construct was attitudes. Internal structure validity emerged as the most prominent validity evidence, with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) being the most common. Reliability evidence was dominated by internal consistency evidence in the form of Cronbach’s alpha, with other forms being scarcely reported, if at all. Discussion: Limitations include only focusing on scales developed in the United States and in post-secondary contexts, limiting the scope of the systematic review. Our findings demonstrate that when developing scales for STEM education research, many types of psychometric properties, such as differential item functioning, test–retest reliability, and discriminant validity are scarcely reported. Furthermore, many scales only report internal structure validity (EFA and/or CFA) and Cronbach’s alpha, which are not enough evidence alone. We encourage researchers to look towards the full spectrum of psychometric evidence both when choosing scales to use and when developing their own. While constructs such as attitudes and disciplines such as engineering were dominant in our sample, future work can fill in the gaps by developing scales for disciplines, such as geosciences, and examine constructs, such as engagement, self-efficacy, and perceived fit.
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    The Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection (ICELER) Faculty Learning Community Curriculum: 2018-2022
    (2023-12-18) Price, Mary F.; Coleman, Martin A.; Fore, Grant A.; Hess, Justin L.; Sorge, Brandon H.; Hahn, Tom; Sanders, Elizabeth; Nyarko, Samuel Cornelius
    The Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection (ICELER) project was funded under the NSF’s Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM program (Award #1737157) in 2017 as a five-year institutional transformation grant (see Fore et al., 2018). The ICELER project approaches institutional transformation in teaching and learning on multiple levels including individual and departmental. To effect changes at these two levels, the research team used a faculty learning community (FLC) as a core intervention in the project. This document provides background information on the curriculum used in this FLC, including descriptions of the design features and activities. This report includes an appendices section as well that includes sample assignments and tools used over the four years that the FLC was active. This report is intended as a resource for those interested in learning from, replicating, or adapting it for their own work with faculty.
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    The Role of Place Attachment and Situated Sustainability Meaning-Making in Enhancing Student Civic-Mindedness: A Campus Farm Example
    (JSE, 2022-02-21) Sorge, Brandon H.; Wiliamson, Francesca A.; Fore, Grant A.; Angstmann, Julia L.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    This research explores the role that place attachment and place meaning towards an urban farm play in predicting undergraduate students’ civic-mindedness, an important factor in sustainability and social change. In 2017 and 2018, three STEM courses at a private university in the Midwest incorporated a local urban farm as a physical and conceptual context for teaching course content and sustainability concepts. Each course included a four to six-week long place-based experiential learning (PBEL) module aimed at enhancing undergraduate STEM student learning outcomes, particularly place attachment, situated sustainability meaning-making (SSMM), and civic-mindedness. End-of-course place attachment, SSMM, and civic-mindedness survey data were collected from students involved in these courses and combined with institutionally provided demographic information. Place attachment and SSMM surveys, along with the course in which the students participated, were statistically significant predictors of students’ civic-mindedness score.