Career Commitment and Retention in STEM: Examining the Impact of a Career Management Intervention

田纳西州立大学的研究人员将研究一项职业发展干预措施的影响，该措施是根据先前研究的经验教训修订的。该项目将通过调查职业决策困难，职业发展的变化阶段，成长心态和学术满意度来关注STEM职业持续性。参与者将制定一个十年计划，通过本科教育录取到研究生院及以后，接收有关学术支持活动的重要性的信息，并发展规划和管理自己的职业道路的技能。这些目标将通过实施一系列以研究为基础的讲习班来实现，这些讲习班旨在提高学生对如何使其职业抱负与就业市场趋势保持一致以及如何管理其职业计划的理解。预期的结果是，学生将有更多的承诺，他们的主要研究领域，自我效能感的职业相关的任务，并在他们的成功潜力更大的信心。研究结果将有助于职业心理学和干坚持文学通过整合理论与职业发展的有效干预与非洲裔美国人STEM学生的研究。拟议的项目是一个混合方法的研究设计，调查几个研究问题：（1）干预将以何种方式提高非裔美国学生的职业规划和管理技能（2）干预将以何种方式减少学生的职业决策-制定和规划的困难？(3)干预对非裔美国学生对STEM的承诺、兴趣、表现和保留有什么影响？以及（4）干预对非裔美国学生参与职业机会有什么影响？将使用准实验前/后测试对照组纵向设计收集定量数据。变量将包括职业决策困难，变化过程，成长心态和生产力持久性的措施。定性数据将通过焦点小组和来自不同STEM学术部门的个人访谈收集。将使用MANOVA/MANCOVA进行数据分析。其他分析将检查性别，种族/民族，第一代身份和STEM专业的影响。记录干预措施的有效性将支持在其他HBCU复制该模式，重点是增加STEM劳动力的多样性。 该项目得到了历史上黑人学院和大学本科生计划（HBCU-UP）的支持，扩大了教育轨道的参与研究。该计划轨道支持想法创建和研究新的模型和创新在干教学和学习，调查影响学生的差异参与和成功率的潜在问题，从代表性不足的群体，并产生知识，告知干教育实践和干预措施。

Researchers at Tennessee State University will examine the impact of a career development intervention that was revised based on lessons learned from prior research. The project will focus on STEM career persistence by investigating career decision making difficulties, stages of change in career development, growth mindset, and academic satisfaction. Participants will develop a ten-year plan for matriculating through undergraduate education to graduate school and beyond, receive information about the importance of academic support activities, and develop skills in planning and managing their career paths. These goals will be achieved through the implementation of a research-based series of workshops designed to increase students' understanding about how to align their career aspirations with job market trends and how to manage their career plan. The expected outcome is that students will have an increased commitment to their major field of study, self-efficacy for career-related tasks, and greater confidence in their potential for success. The research findings will contribute to the vocational psychology and STEM persistence literature by integrating theory related to career development with research on an effective intervention with African American STEM students.The proposed project is a mixed-methods research design to investigate several research questions: (1) In what ways will the intervention increase career planning and management skills of African American students' (2) In what ways will the intervention reduce students' career decision-making and planning difficulties? (3) What will be the effect of the intervention on African American students' commitment to and interest, performance, and retention in STEM? and (4) What effect will the intervention have on African American students' participation in professional opportunities? Quantitative data will be gathered using a quasi-experimental pre-/post-test control group longitudinal design. Variables will include measures of career decision-making difficulties, change processes, growth mindset, and productive persistence. Qualitative data will be gathered using focus groups and individual interviews from different STEM academic departments. Data analysis will be conducted using MANOVA/MANCOVA. Additional analyses will examine for the impact of gender, race/ethnicity, first-generation status, and STEM major. Documentation of the effectiveness of the intervention will support the replication of the model at other HBCUs focusing on increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce. This project is supported by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) Broadening Participation Research in Education track. This program track supports ideas to create and study new models and innovations in STEM teaching and learning, investigate the underlying issues affecting the differential participation and success rates of students from underrepresented groups, and produce knowledge to inform STEM education practices and interventions.