PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND TEAM MEMBER EFFECTIVENESS OF MINORITIZED STUDENTS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Higher psychological safety (i.e., a common feeling among team members to take interpersonal risks without any fear of negative consequences) is related to increased learning in teams, yet there is no comprehensive study in engineering education to see how individual and team-average psychological safety are related to students' team experience, and particularly how that relationship differs based on gender, race/ethnicity, citizenship status, previous programming skills, attended semester, and students' GPA. This study addresses these questions using multi-linear regression and multi-level modeling. Individual psychological safety was significantly related to racial/ethnic identifications of Asian, "Black, African-American" (a single choice as presented to students), and Hispanic/Latino, being an international student, attended semester, and GPA. Team member effectiveness was significantly related to GPA, previous programming skills, attended semester, a racial identification of Black, African-American, and team-average psychological safety. The results of this study help engineering instructors understand what is happening in teams and add to our knowledge about the team experiences of minoritized students.