A multimethod approach to understanding dropout from STEM gateway courses

该项目的主要目的是探讨本科生为什么会从STEM专业辍学。PI建议研究一组认知和动机变量，以了解STEM网关课程辍学的原因。他们计划采用多方法的方法来研究本科生的过程？在坦普尔大学，这些入门课程招收了60%或更多的非白人学生。在德威克身上画画？他们假设，学生们倾向于相信他们自己的STEM能力要么是一个固定的实体，要么是可延展的，这会影响他们是否留在STEM专业。除了研究的定量部分，为了更好地了解学生，在学期的早期和后期将对学生进行有目的的抽样采访。自己辍学/保留决策的原因及其与实体/增量信念的关系。学生将被跟踪记录他们的辍学状态在四年的过程中，允许纵向检查（使用生存分析的统计技术）的认知和动机变量对学生的影响？坚持不懈主要重点是建立知识，以增加STEM保留和建设科学能力。该研究的结果可能会提供有关辍学预测因素和潜在干预目标的重要信息，这些信息可以帮助大学和政策制定者努力提高STEM学生的保留率。来自少数民族高等院校（坦普尔大学）的本科理科专业学生将参加，而职前理科教师将成为本科研究助理的目标。跨学科项目旨在政策相关和基于证据的研究结果，以改善本科和研究生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.