A multimethod approach to understanding dropout from STEM gateway courses

该项目的主要目的是探讨本科学生退出STEM专业的原因。pi建议研究一组认知和动机变量，以了解从STEM门户课程辍学的原因。他们计划采用多种方法来研究本科生的学习过程。从天普大学的这些课程中退学，在那里，这些入门课程招收了60%或更多的非白人学生。借鉴德韦克？在他们的研究中，他们假设学生倾向于认为自己的STEM能力要么是固定的，要么是可塑的，这影响了他们是否继续学习STEM专业。除了研究的定量部分外，为了更好地了解学生，在学期初和期末，将对有目的的学生样本进行访谈。放弃/保留决定的原因及其与实体/增量信念的关系。这些学生将被跟踪记录他们四年的退学情况，允许纵向检查（使用生存分析的统计技术）认知和动机变量对学生的影响。持久性。主要重点是建立知识，以增加STEM的保留率和建立科学能力。这项研究的结果可能会提供关于辍学预测因素和潜在干预目标的重要信息，这些信息可以帮助那些试图提高STEM学生保留率的大学和政策制定者。来自少数族裔高等院校（天普大学）的本科理科专业学生将成为参与者，职前科学教师将成为本科生研究助理的目标。该跨学科项目旨在通过政策相关和基于证据的研究结果来改善本科和研究生的STEM课程。

The main purpose of the project is to explore why undergraduate students drop out of STEM majors. The PIs propose to study a set of cognitive and motivational variables to understand the reasons for dropout from STEM gateway courses. They plan to employ a multimethod approach to study the process of undergraduate students? dropout from these courses at Temple University, where such gateway courses enroll 60% or more non-White students. Drawing on Dweck?s work, they hypothesize that students tend to believe their own STEM ability is either a fixed entity or malleable, and this affects whether they remain in STEM majors. In addition to the quantitative part of the study a purposive sample of students will be interviewed early and late in the semester in order to better understand students? own reasons for dropout/retention decisions and their relationship to entity/incremental beliefs. The students will be followed to document their dropout status over the course of four years, allowing for a longitudinal examination (using the statistical technique of survival analysis) of the effect of cognitive and motivational variables on students? persistence. The primary focus is on building knowledge in order to increase STEM retention and build scientific capacity. The results of the study are likely to provide important information about predictors of dropout and potential targets for intervention that can assist universities and policymakers who are trying to increase retention of STEM students. Undergraduate science majors from a high-minority institution (Temple University) will be participants, and pre-service science teachers will be targeted for undergraduate research assistants. The interdisciplinary project aims at policy relevant and evidence based findings to improve undergraduate and graduate STEM programs.