Annualized Assessment of Soft-Skill Competencies and Its Effects on Graduation & Retention of Minority Students

Session We2: Nov 10, 11:45 AM

Abstract:

Since 2014, Purdue University has been a leader in its commitment to fostering soft-skill competencies in its undergraduate students. A strategic approach to assessment and competency building uses a three-part "black box" approach to scale up "soft-skill" competencies which include: emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and global ecological resonance. It has been applied in the Colleges of Engineering, Science, Agriculture, and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.  

The approach works like this:

  • Pre-test students in the first year of study.
  • The degree program offers a wide range of learning opportunities that incorporate intentional inclusion modules and formative assessment. 
  • Use a post-test in the senior (final) year of study to identify the 'delta' of intercultural competency.

This year, 2021, will be the first time a Purdue STEM college matches senior-year data to first-year data. 

We will present an initial analysis of this pre/post data. The instrument used --the Beliefs, Events and Values Inventory-- is a psychometrically validated survey instrument that grew out of clinical psychology. It offers a supportive narrative report to every survey-taker and robust inter-group comparison on such demographic factors as gender, race, and ethnicity, degree of religion and gender traditionalism, and socio-economic status.

In the interim between the first-year data collection and 2021, we have been tracking the retention and graduation effects on underrepresented minority student populations under the hypothesis that frequent whole-cohort classroom discussions of improving one's capacity to work across differences might affect the belongingness and well-being of these populations. Indications are that these large-scale intercultural learning efforts may be having a significant impact on minority students' retention and graduation.

Findings of the pre/post analysis will be discussed, as will comparisons of the differing soft-skill profiles of engineering students and other varieties of STEM majors.