Improving Retention through Student Learning Communities

通过学生学习社区提高保留率

• 批准号: 0653260
• 负责人: Dan Walker
• 金额: $ 200万
• 依托单位: San Jose State University Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-15 至 2012-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0653260&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Retention; through; Student; Learning

In order to increase the number of graduates obtaining bachelor degrees in the STEM fields, the College of Science is implementing a number of interventions. In addition, students in the College of Engineering also are deriving substantial benefit from these interventions. Since significant attrition, almost 50%, occurs among both freshmen and transfer students from community colleges, the new activities are focusing on retention strategies. The expectation is that up to 40% of the students now lost from STEM majors will be retained by the end this five year project. Retaining and graduating 40% of the about 50% of students who currently leave STEM majors translates into a future graduation rate of 70% of students among freshman and among junior transfer students who declare STEM majors. Creating learning communities has been shown repeatedly to improve student success, so the project is greatly expanding existing efforts in order to create an integrated learning community of participating faculty, professional advisors, undergraduate tutors and mentors, and the STEM students themselves. The students are incorporated into the learning community through use of collaborative learning approaches such as Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) and Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning (POGIL), highly successful learning models developed in large part with NSF funding. Three major components are the basis for these efforts:1. Recruit and train a large cadre of talented upper division undergraduate students to act as peer leaders and course assistants (i.e., academic facilitators).2. Provide professional development workshops for faculty who teach the "gate-keeper" STEM courses taken by entering students.3. Enhance and expand the professional academic and career advising services,including tracking academic success of every student during each semester.Intellectual Merit: Undergraduate STEM majors are working with faculty to act as mentors and facilitators of younger students, thus providing leadership training and experience for these majors. Developing and implementing effective pedagogical approaches in selected courses is improving learning and increasing student retention. Because the College of Science sponsors large teacher preparation programs in science and mathematics, these efforts also are retaining an increased number of potential K-12 teachers. Successful outcomes will be disseminated through a combination of published articles and presentations at professional and interdisciplinary meetings; project reports will be widely available through the project website, as well as on the national PLTL and POGIL websites.Broader Impacts: The total number of U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens graduating each year from the Colleges of Science and of Engineering is expected to increase by 332 by the end of the grant period. Local technology industries experience a significant shortage of STEM professionals, necessitating the recruitment of foreign workers on HB1 visas. Because San Jose State University historically provides more of this workforce than any other university in the region, increasing the number of STEM graduates is of immediate benefit to the local community. In addition, the project is broadening the participation of underrepresented groups as extra focus is being placed on these students. Finally, the project is enhancing the infrastructure for research and education on the campus by improving the retention of students in the College of Science and the College of Engineering.

为了增加获得STEM领域学士学位的毕业生人数，理学院正在实施一些干预措施。此外，工程学院的学生也从这些干预措施中获益匪浅。由于社区大学的新生和转学生中几乎有50%的人流失，新的活动集中在保留策略上。 预计在这个为期五年的项目结束时，目前从STEM专业流失的学生中，将有高达40%的人被保留下来。 目前离开STEM专业的约50%的学生中有40%保留并毕业，这意味着新生和宣布STEM专业的大三转学生中未来的毕业率为70%。 创建学习社区已多次被证明可以提高学生的成功率，因此该项目正在大大扩大现有的努力，以创建一个由参与教师，专业顾问，本科生导师和导师以及STEM学生自己组成的综合学习社区。学生们通过使用协作学习方法，如同行领导的团队学习（PLTL）和过程导向的引导探究学习（POGIL），在很大程度上与NSF资助开发的非常成功的学习模式，纳入学习社区。 三个主要组成部分是这些努力的基础：1。招募和培养一大批有才华的高年级本科生，担任同侪领导和课程助理（即，学术促进者）。提供专业发展研讨会的教师谁教的“看门人”STEM课程进入学生采取。加强和扩大专业的学术和职业咨询服务，包括跟踪每个学生在每个学期的学术成就。智力优势：本科STEM专业与教师合作，担任年轻学生的导师和促进者，从而为这些专业提供领导力培训和经验。在选定的课程中制定和实施有效的教学方法正在改善学习，提高学生的保留率。由于理学院赞助了科学和数学方面的大型教师培训项目，这些努力也留住了越来越多的潜在K-12教师。成功的成果将通过发表文章和在专业和跨学科会议上的发言加以传播;项目报告将通过项目网站以及国家PLTL和POGIL网站广泛提供。每年从科学和工程学院毕业的美国公民或永久居民外国人的总数预计将增加332人到补助期结束时。 当地科技行业严重缺乏STEM专业人员，需要招聘持HB 1签证的外国工人。由于圣何塞州立大学历史上提供了比该地区任何其他大学更多的劳动力，增加STEM毕业生的数量对当地社区有直接的好处。 此外，该项目正在扩大代表性不足的群体的参与，因为对这些学生给予了额外的关注。最后，该项目通过提高理学院和工学院学生的保留率，加强校园内研究和教育的基础设施。