Education Research Project: NSU Evaluative Research Study of STEM Programs for Improved Retention, Progression and Graduation

诺福克州立大学（NSU）将开展一项教育研究项目，该项目将对NSU科学技术工程数学（STEM）学生奖学金计划（DNIMAS）进行全面的正式评估。我们认为，在这个时候这样的承诺是必要的，因为有一个相当长的历史，少数STEM富集计划，在很大程度上报告的成功，但是，他们只是以轶事的方式报道了这种成功，并没有以一种能够帮助其他人系统地采用那些有助于显著增加代表性不足的人数的教育战略和理念的方式传播他们的调查结果。学生追求STEM培训和职业入门[松井，2003]。目前缺乏详细说明成功的少数民族STEM培训的信息不一定是赞助或实施此类计划的机构和组织的错，而是由于与参加特殊STEM培训计划的学生保持纵向联系的固有困难[Brainard和Carlin，1999]。此外，对少数民族STEM培训计划的许多正式评估的分析通常集中在学生的成果和行为上，通常不会对所有人员进行深入的询问，例如教授，管理人员，辅导员和教育支持人员，他们也在开展STEM教育计划中发挥重要作用。 这个研究项目将产生一个非常详细的分析奖学金计划与所有明显的和不那么明显的特点，这种培训环境。一些可能被称为明显的特征将包括强制性的教程，研讨会和实习，仅举几例;而不那么明显的特征将是学生学习和支持小组的形成，教师指导和角色塑造，以及家庭和社区联系的程度。我们的研究项目将利用各种评估工具和已被公认为提供全面和可靠的方案数据的协商。这些评估工具将衡量这样的参数对知识和学习的态度，学习成绩，职业意识，学习技能的知识，元认知水平，他们与其他STEM学生和教师的互动性质，个人信心，来自家人和朋友的学术和个人支持，大学资源的利用，解决问题策略的选择和利用，互联网依赖，愿意承担风险这项研究将评估全额奖学金计划的有效性，并将其作为一个拟议的模式来支持STEM和其他大学课程的其他学生的保留，进步和毕业。本研究还将评估NSU工程系的核心教师和综合课程计划，其中保留是在课堂上通过强调所有知识的统一，通过使用综合课程解决。一系列的研究问题将作为开发一套全面的计划评估指标的框架。重要的是，将由这个拟议的研究项目确定的定义的指标衡量计划的战略，活动和结果是有针对性的NSU STEM计划的一个组成部分。该研究项目的目的是证明实际应用和研究是相互关联的，并确保完成NSU工程课程的学生以及最终在NSU完成所有STEM学位课程的学生都将是“劳动力就绪”，并有能力将他们的知识转移到故障排除和新系统和应用程序的设计中。核心教师团队拥有完善的协同方法，可以解决学生在入门课程中可能遇到的弱点。此外，综合课程方法可能证明能够使学生理解所介绍的专题的相关性和相互关联性，而不必等待数月甚至数年才能意识到如何使用他们以前可能学到的各种工具。在许多STEM部门，即使现在有相当大的努力放在辅导支持学生就读网关课程，仍然需要更加重视教学法和演示技巧的教师教网关课程。预期的影响是确定关键的成功因素，导致在网关STEM课程就读的学生在新西伯利亚国立大学的进步和保留率的增加，并最终提高所有学生在STEM领域的毕业率。

Norfolk State University (NSU) will conduct an educational research project that will provide a comprehensive formal evaluation of a NSU Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) student scholarship program (DNIMAS). We believe that such an undertaking is necessary at this point-in time because there is a considerable history of minority STEM enrichment programs that have largely reported success, but have reported such success anecdotally and have not disseminated their findings in a manner that can help others to systematically adopt those educational strategies and philosophies that contribute towards the creation of a significant increase in the number of underrepresented students pursuing STEM training and career entry [Matsui, 2003]. The current deficit of information detailing successful minority STEM training is not necessarily the fault of institutions and organizations that have sponsored or implemented such programs, but rather results from the inherent difficulty in maintaining longitudinal connections with students, who participated in special STEM training programs [Brainard and Carlin, 1999]. Also, the analysis of many formal evaluations of minority STEM training initiatives typically focus on students' outcomes and behaviors, and do not usually conduct in-depth queries of all personnel, such as professors, administrators, counselors, and educational support staff, who also play a significant role in carrying out STEM education programs. This research project will produce a very detailed analysis of the scholarship program with all of the obvious and not-so-obvious features of this training environment. Some of what might be called obvious features would include mandatory tutorials, seminars, and externships, to name a few; while the not-so-obvious features would be the formation of student study and support groups, faculty mentoring and role modeling, and the extent of family and community connectedness. Our research project will utilize a variety of assessment instruments and consultations that have been recognized to provide comprehensive and reliable programmatic data. These assessment instruments will measure such parameters as attitudes towards knowledge and learning, academic performance, career awareness, knowledge of study skills, meta-cognitive levels, nature of their interactions with other STEM students and faculty, personal confidence, academic and personal support from family and friends, utilization of University resources, choice of and utilization of problems-solving strategies, Internet reliance, and willingness to take risks. This research will evaluate the effectiveness of the full scholarship program and examine it as a proposed model to support retention, progression, and graduation of other students in STEM and other university programs. Also this research will evaluate the NSU Engineering Department's core faculty and integrated curriculum program, where retention is addressed in the classroom by emphasizing the unity of all knowledge through the use of an integrated curriculum. A series of research questions will serve as the framework for developing a comprehensive set of program evaluation metrics. It is important that the defined metrics that will be determined by this proposed research project measure program strategies, activities and results that are an integral part of the targeted NSU STEM programs. The intent of this research project is to demonstrate that practical applications and research are interconnected as well as to ensure that students completing NSU programs in engineering and ultimately all STEM degree programs at NSU will be both "workforce ready" as well as have the capability to transfer their knowledge to troubleshooting and to the design of new systems and applications. The core faculty team have well-developed and synergistic approaches that will address weaknesses that students may encounter in the gateway courses. Furthermore, the integrated curriculum approach may prove to allow students to understand the relevance and interrelatedness of topics as they are presented, rather than having to wait months and sometimes years before they are able to realize how to use various tools that they may have learned earlier. In many STEM departments, even though there is now considerable effort being placed on tutorial support for students enrolled in gateway courses, there still needs to be more emphasis on pedagogy and presentation skills by faculty teaching the gateway courses. The expected impact is to determine the critical success factors that lead to an increase in the progression and retention rates of students enrolled in gateway STEM courses at NSU and to ultimately increase the graduation rates of all students in STEM fields.