Fostering Diversity and Educational Learning among Minority Engineering Students through Group-Study: A Case Study

Peer tutoring is established as one of the most efficient methods in learning. The same approach blended with diversity is used in this study through in-class-study-group formation. The effectiveness of group study in enhancing student performance is investigated in this paper. The study is done in fundamental engineering classes in two US regional universities over the last two years. One institution is a traditional mainstream university and other is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with a diverse student population. In general, engineering has very few students from underrepresented minority backgrounds. Low performance rate of minority students becoming a challenge for engineering programs in HSIs since minority students are the majority of the student body. Success of the entire engineering program will largely depend on the success rate of the minority students. Selectively random study groups were formed by including students of different performance levels as well as ethnicity and gender. They are encouraged to study in a group inside and outside the class room. Each group is asked to do their in-class and home work problems as a team and learn from each other. For the purpose of grading, peer evaluations as well as individual exams were administered in addition to group work. Descriptive Statistics and ANOVA are used for data analysis. The results showed an enhancement in students learning in both the universities. However, performance rate appeared relatively higher among white students.