Topic: Factors for Student Success: The Potential of Identity, Motivation, and Belonging
When: Monday, September 14 from 12 - 1 pm
Where: Virtual (sign up for the Zoom link)

The next dB-SERC lunch discussion will take place Monday, September 14 from 12 – 1 pm. Dr. Allison Godwin from Purdue University will lead a special talk about identity that should be exciting and relevant for the dB-SERC community. The abstract follows:

Identity is an enduring and continuous sense of one’s self and is often thought of as the answer to the questions, “Who am I, Who can I be, and Where do I belong?” Research shows that developing a robust STEM identity is important for academic and personal development, integration into STEM fields, and academic success in STEM programs. In addition to identity, other factors like motivation and belonging have similar influence on student success. However, most institutions of higher education rely on cognitive measures, like grades, as a sole measure of student success, and intervention efforts often focus on academic skills required to perform well on these specific measures. Often, supporting students’ non-cognitive factors goes mostly ignored, although this area has gained interest in recent years. This talk will explore the current research on engineering identity as well as other non-cognitive factors and the emerging links to student success.

Allison Godwin, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education and of Chemical Engineering (by Courtesy) at Purdue University. She is also the Workforce Development Co-Director for the Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. Her research focuses how identity, among other affective factors, influences diverse students to choose engineering and persist in engineering. She also studies how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belongingness and identity development. Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education.