Collaborative Research: Mathematics Graduate Student Peer-Mentorship Program: Impact and Adaptability

美国在未来几年面临的一个关键挑战是在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域招聘和培养一支有竞争力的劳动力队伍。由于数学在STEM学科中发挥着至关重要的作用，学生在本科数学课程中的成功对STEM劳动力的准备至关重要。然而，学生获得STEM学位的困难往往被归因于他们无法顺利通过早期的本科数学课程。这个与鲍林格林州立大学、南卡罗来纳大学哥伦比亚分校和西弗吉尼亚大学合作的项目将通过关注教学和指导本科生的数学科学研究生讲师(GSI)培训来解决这一重要的全国性问题。尽管基于证据的结果表明，STEM课程中学生学习效果的改善往往与教师使用以学生为中心的技巧有关，但GSI通常使用传统的以论述为中心的方法教授入门数学课程，而在如何使用以学生为中心的策略来提高教学整体质量方面接受的培训微不足道。为了应对这一问题，该项目将探索一种全面的同行辅导方法来培训数学科学GSI如何影响他们以学生为中心的课堂实践并提高他们的学生的成功，特别是在早期的本科数学课程中。这一合作努力将导致通过国家科学基金会1544342/1544346年度赠款全面扩大试点项目。这一项目将产生持久的影响，因为很大比例的数学研究生不仅在他们还是研究生的时候就承担着教学责任，而且还将把相当大一部分劳动力的专业责任用于指导本科生。该项目的一个基本目标是调查和支持数学科学GSI的发展，作为教育工作者，他们可以通过在课堂上使用以学生为中心的技术来吸引和留住他们的本科生。为了实现这一目标，项目组将通过开发和审查以循证学生为中心的教学实践为重点的指导课程和观察方案，扩大和研究上述试点项目的努力。反过来，该项目将通过同伴指导支持产生一个实践社区。该项目的另一个目标是确定在三个合作机构中适应这一同行指导计划所涉及的后勤和文化问题。研究人员将使用混合方法来检验他们的同伴指导计划的有效性、影响和适应性，在该计划中，经验丰富的GSI接受培训，以指导、促进和支持一年级和二年级GSI的基础数学课程的教学。这将涉及形成性评估和在合作机构实施和完善该计划的多个周期。对这些实施周期的分析将为这一培训结构对GSI教学实践的影响提供证据，并将确定与在不同类型的机构成功实施这一计划相关的核心特征和必要标准。总体影响将是制定和调查战略和实践社区，以帮助发展一支准备加强STEM领域的本科生学习和学位追求的数学教育工作者队伍。

A critical challenge facing the United States over the next several years is to recruit and prepare a competitive workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Because mathematics plays a crucial role in the STEM disciplines, student success in undergraduate mathematics courses is vital to this STEM workforce preparation. Yet, students' difficulties in obtaining a STEM degree often are attributed to their lack of being able to navigate through early undergraduate mathematics courses. This collaborative project with Bowling Green State University, the University of South Carolina at Columbia, and West Virginia University will address this important national issue by focusing on mathematical sciences graduate student instructor (GSI) training in teaching and mentoring undergraduates. Despite evidence-based results indicating that improved student learning outcomes in STEM courses often are correlated to instructors' use of student-centered techniques, GSIs typically teach introductory mathematics courses with traditional, exposition-centered methods and receive negligible training in how to use student-centered strategies to improve their overall quality of instruction. To counter this, the project will explore how a comprehensive peer mentoring approach to training mathematical sciences GSIs can impact their student-centered classroom practice and increase their students' success, particularly in early undergraduate mathematics courses. This collaborative effort will result in a comprehensive expansion of a piloted project through NSF grants 1544342/1544346. This project will have sustaining impact since a large percentage of mathematicals graduate students not only have instructional responsibilities while they are still graduate students, but also will devote a substantial portion of their workforce professional responsibilities instructing undergraduate students. An underlying goal of the project is to investigate and support development of mathematical sciences GSIs as educators who can engage and retain their undergraduate students through employment of student-centered techniques in the classroom. To address this goal, the project team will expand and study efforts on the aforementioned piloted project by developing and vetting a mentoring curriculum and observation protocol focused on evidence-based student-centered instructional practices. In turn, the project will generate a community of practice through peer mentoring support. An additional goal of the project is to determine the logistical and cultural issues surrounding adapting this peer-mentoring program at the three collaborating institutions. The researchers will employ a mixed methods approach to examine the efficacy, impact, and adaptability of their peer-mentoring program wherein experienced GSIs receive training to guide, facilitate, and support first- and second-year GSIs' teaching of foundational mathematics courses. This will involve formative evaluation and multiple cycles implementing and refining the program at the collaborating institutions. Analysis of these implementation cycles will provide evidence for the impact of this training structure on GSIs' teaching practices and will identify core features and necessary criteria associated with successfully implementing this program at different types of institutions. An overall impact will be the development and investigation of strategies and communities of practice to help develop a mathematics educator workforce that is prepared to enhance undergraduate learning and degree pursuit in STEM fields.