MECHANICAL ENGINEERING—ENGINEERING MECHANICS
Proudly Presents:
Dr. Marie Paretti
Associate Professor — Virginia Tech
Marie C. Paretti is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where she
co-directs the Virginia Tech Engineering Communications Center (VTECC). She received a B.S. in
chemical engineering and an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in English from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on communication and collaboration, design education, and identity (including race, gender, class, etc.) in engineering. She was awarded a
CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation to study expert teaching in capstone design courses, and is co-PI on numerous NSF grants exploring communication, teamwork, design,
and identity in engineering. Drawing on theories of situated learning and identity development,
her work includes studies on the teaching and learning of communication, effective teaching practices in design education, the effects of differing pedagogies on personal and professional identities, the dynamics of cross-disciplinary collaboration in both academic and industry design environments, and diversity and identity in engineering. When not at
work, she can be found pulling weeds in her garden or bicycling the back roads of Craig County, VA.
Thursday,February18,2016
4:00 pm — 103 EERC
What Do Faculty Teach and What Do Students Learn:
Studies of Teamwork in Engineering
Teamwork has long been considered a central skill for engineering professionals, and as a result, group project work has
become an increasingly important component of undergraduate education. But putting students into groups alone does
not inherently help students develop teamwork skills; internal team dynamics, campus culture, faculty engagement (or lack
thereof), and a range of other factors affects both what students learn and who learns it. In this talk, we’ll look at findings
from four different students to consider faculty and student experiences and perceptions regarding teamwork in engineering education. The studies include a multi-case study of five different institutions using interviews with faculty and students to explore current beliefs, a phenomenological study of Africa-American students’ experiences on engineering
teams at a single institutions, a mixed-methods national study of teaching and learning in capstone design courses, and an
observational case study of expert faculty in a first-year problem-based learning program. Each study provides a rich data
set on its own, and collectively, they identify current perceptions, expert practices, and critical gaps as we seek to help prepare diverse undergraduate engineering students to succeed on workplace engineering teams.
This event is being partially sponsored/funded by the Visiting Women & Minority Lecturer/Scholar Series (VWMLS) which is funded by a
grant to the Institutional Equity & Inclusion from the State of Michigan's King-Chavez-Parks Initiative.