Connection, Community, and Engagement in STEM Education (Large Empirical, Contextual Research Topics in STEM Education)

本研究项目的目标是提高学生和教师对社区联系的认识，将其作为学术参与的因素。本研究的三个阶段将把基础研究成果转化为应用策略，以改善高等教育STEM环境中的参与度。第一阶段是工具开发阶段，它将为评估目标结构（参与、参与、影响、认知等）提供一个有效的工具箱。将开发三种数据收集工具：学生调查、学生焦点小组协议和教师访谈协议。第二阶段侧重于解决以下研究问题：与社区的哪些联系导致了学术参与的显著差异？以及机构的特点如何塑造课堂体验，以增加社区？我们会对学生进行问卷调查，并与五所不同专上院校的学生进行焦点小组和访谈。数据将在机构内部和机构之间进行分析，以衡量高等教育机构特征对学生影响、感知、认知、归属感、参与和参与的影响。最后，第三阶段强调应用成果来制定战略，通过这些战略，各种参与机构的成功社区建设特征可以转移到其他地方。在所有阶段，研究团队为拟议的研究带来了广泛多样的专业知识和机构结构。五种不同类型的机构代表了这一努力：研究1（华盛顿大学），综合（明尼苏达州立大学），硕士（西蒙斯学院），私立，信仰（西雅图太平洋）和HBCU（塔斯基吉）。这些院校在本科教育方面都有独特的历史优势；本研究将通过中介参与和随后预测学生学习，提高对这些优势如何影响与社区联系的理解。

The goal of this research project is to advance knowledge about student and faculty perceptions of connection to community as factors in academic engagement. The three phases of this research will mold basic research results into applied strategies for improvements in engagement in higher education STEM environments. The first phase is a tool development phase which will provide a valid tool box for evaluating target constructs (engagement, participation, affect, cognition, etc.). Three data collection tools will be developed: student surveys, student focus group protocols, and faculty interview protocols. The second phase focuses on addressing the following research question: What connections to community are contributing to significant differences in academic engagement? and How do institutional characteristics mold the classroom experience toward increased community? Surveys will be administered to students and focus group and interviews conducted with students at five different post-secondary institutions. Data will be analyzed within and across institutions to gauge the effects of higher education institutional characteristics on student affect, perception, cognition, sense of belonging, engagement, and participation. Finally, the third phase emphasizes applying results to develop strategies by which successful community-building characteristics of the various participating institutions can be transferred elsewhere. In all phases, the research team brings a broad range of diversity of expertise and institutional fabric to the proposed study. Five different types of institutions are represented in this effort: Research 1 (University of Washington), Comprehensive (Minnesota State), Master's L (Simmons College), Private, Faith-Based (Seattle Pacific), and HBCU (Tuskegee). Each of these institutions has unique historical strengths for undergraduate education; this research will improve understanding of how these strengths impact connections to community via mediating engagement and subsequently predicting student learning.