Project Investigator(s): Elisa Baniassad, Instructor, Department of Computer Science
Project Description
In observing software engineering teams, I have seen that while some students dominate discussions, others feel “muted”. Since meetings involve task assignments and technological choices, quieter students can be sidelined into “housekeeping” work. This has a stratifying effect, further reducing quiet students’ voices at subsequent meetings because of lack of core knowledge or perspective. Marginalisation hurts grades, performance in subsequent courses, and industry preparedness. We already track individual contributions and self-reflection. We wish to map these data, plus factors such as gender, age, and technical background, to verbal contributions, to elucidate and possibly reduce muting in future.
Research Questions
1. How do students engage in group discussions in terms of their verbal contributions, performance, and attitudes?
2. Are there verbal contributions, performance, or attitudes predictors of who is a muter or “mutee”?
3. How might we facilitate educational equity and equity of voice?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
The data-collection approach is sustainable and scalable within courses where contributions are tracked: It only slightly augments existing self-reflection documentation present in many group-project courses. This work could inform group composition in classes beyond software engineering, especially as group work and active learning takes a more dominant role. Results could influence formation of teams in any setting where individual contributions and learning outcomes are specifically valued. Though in industry there is a priority placed on project success, individual team member satisfaction and even retention may be tied to equity of voice.