Dr. Shinae Jang is a Professor in Residence of Civil and Environmental Engineering and served as a member in the 2024 cohort for the Faculty Summer Career Institute. She teaches “Applied Mechanics”, which is a foundational course for Engineering students that teaches how to analyze basic structures under forces. This course is required for at least 5 Engineering majors including Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering. Enrollment for this course is 500 ~ 600 students per academic year, and is expected to increase next year with ranges of each Statics section averaging from 80-90 students but can sometimes be as large as 180 – 240 students to accommodate the high demand. Shinae’s commitment to infusing career readiness in her classroom was a challenge, given the large number of students she had to teach and has been determined to find the best solutions to help support her students.
After meeting with Dr. Christa Taylor, Educational Psychologist, the pair developed two pillars to make incorporating career readiness into a large class successful.
Pilar 1: Professional Educational Activity
Shinae integrated a collaborative activity into her Applied Mechanics course utilizing these two pillars, inspired by the 2024 Summer Career Fellow Institute and the 2024 Summer Mobile Institute of Scientific Teaching and Learning. Shinae found that, in a large group setting, focusing on a few competencies rather than on all 8 allowed students to refine and enhance the target competency, but also helped to indirectly strengthen the others. In her teamwork activity, students are directly targeting their teamwork competency but learn that they must also utilize competencies such as communication, critical thinking, leadership, and more to be successful in this activity.
Pilar 2: Metacognition
Metacognition at its basis is the idea of “thinking about thinking” (Cunningham, Matusovich, & Hunter, 2015). Furthermore, metacognition delves into self-regulation learning which has been shown to build independent learners (Nelson, 2013) and is a critical component in problem-solving. Davidson & Sternberg (1998) found that the ability to regulate one’s problem-solving activities was what separated good and poor problem-solvers. Through this research, Shinae is dedicated to supporting students who possess these abilities to reflect and regulate. In the context of Shinae’s assignment, this task not only teaches students the value of teamwork but also helps them develop essential skills for being effective team players and encourages self-reflection on their individual performance. Students receive feedback from their peers instantly and this allows for opportunities for students to reflect on their teamwork skills promoting independent learning. For further information on this research, please refer to the reference sheet at the end of this blog.
Shinae’s dedication to applying career readiness in her work began when she met with a few staff members at the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills. At the time she was the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and wanted to find ways to more efficiently connect with her students. After becoming a Career Champion, she collaborated with an interdisciplinary community of faculty during the Career Summer Faculty Fellowship. In addition, her work extends beyond our department as she recently presented at the Annual Conference & Exposition American Society for Engineering Education.
Shinae reflects on her undergraduate and graduate years, recognizing that her university had an excellent Career Center with resources that she wished she had taken advantage of. While navigating her career path, she felt that she had limited options and a narrow path to follow. With 15 years at the university, UConn has been Shinae’s sole employer. In our conversation, Shinae ponders that had she known about and utilized these resources, she may have changed her career? However, Shinae’s career journey has shaped the way she mentors and supports her students. She considers herself fortunate to be in a role she truly loves but acknowledges that not all students share this same sense of fulfillment and may feel stuck in their own paths. She expresses that some of her students already know what companies and areas of expertise they want to delve into, but she strongly encourages students to explore all their options. Even if students know what they want to do, having choices in their lives is better than just having one choice. Shinae plans to continue utilizing the career resources actively by adapting HuskyCT modules to her course, using them as part of her assignments, and providing opportunities for students to actually use the resources in her classroom.
Her hope is to expose students to the possibilities for their career broadening their paths. To her, college is the perfect time to make themselves ready for any opportunities and to have an open mind and broader vision for their lives.
Resources used:
- Cunningham, P., Matusovich, H., Hunter, D.N., McCord, R.E. (2015). “Teaching metacognition: helping engineering students take ownership o f their own learning.” Frontiers in Education Conference, https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2015.7344080
- Davidson , J. E., & Sternberg, R. J. (1998). Smart Problem Solving: How Metacognition Helps. Metacognition in Educational Theory and Practice .
- Nilson, L.B (2013). Creating self-regulated learners: strategies to strengthen students’ self-awareness and learning skills. 1st edition. Taylor & Francis.
