Do Great Minds Think Alike? : Racial/Ethnic and Gender Differences in Mindset of Undergraduate Engineering Students

Abstract

In this work-in-progress research category paper, we explore diversity and inclusion in undergraduate engineering programs by examining racial/ethnic and gender differences in undergraduate engineering students’ growth and fixed mindsets. We use multiple regression analyses on survey data to examine the main and interaction effects of race/ethnicity and gender on growth and fixed mindset to answer our overarching research questions: “How do fixed and growth mindset differ by race/ethnicity and gender for undergraduate engineering students?” and “To what extent do undergraduate engineering students’ race/ethnicity and gender interact for growth or fixed mindset?” Our results indicate that there are significant racial/ethnic group differences but no gender differences on growth and fixed mindset. Also, we found that gender did not moderate the relationship between race/ethnicity and mindset. Thus, while the men and women in our sample appear to share similar mindsets, most of the participants of different racial/ethnic backgrounds did not share similar mindsets.