RCN-UBE Incubator: Equity and Diversity in Undergraduate STEM (EDU-STEM)

RCN-UBE 孵化器：本科生 STEM 的公平与多样性 (EDU-STEM)

• 批准号: 1729935
• 负责人: Sehoya Cotner
• 金额: $ 4.91万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1729935&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RCN; UBE; Incubator; Equity; Diversity

Equity and Diversity in Undergraduate STEM (EDU-STEM) is a collaborative network that will implement evidence-based approaches to counter barriers to equity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, with an initial focus on the life sciences. Specifically, EDU-STEM partners will apply lessons learned from psychology to large-enrollment, introductory courses that often select against historically underrepresented students such as women, and underrepresented minorities (URMs). Such students face challenges unrelated to academic competency, such as discrimination, feelings of exclusion, and imposter syndrome that contribute to well-documented underperformance and high attrition rates. The EDU-STEM network will first assess the status of women and URM students by bringing together individuals that teach introductory science courses from a diverse range of institutions: large public universities, community colleges, Ivy League schools, and minority-serving institutions. The underlying mechanisms that lead to gaps in performance or representation will be quantified among different demographics by investigating three broad metrics: academic performance, whole-class participation, and affective measures (i.e., those that do not directly relate to performance outcomes, such as confidence, interest, and feelings of inclusion). By involving a range of educators from a diverse set of institutions, this network will establish tendrils of equity awareness among groups of faculty not typically engaged in educational research or evidence-based teaching techniques. The network seeks to empirically document factors that affect participation in STEM in order to broaden institutional capacity for STEM learning, ultimately contributing to a STEM workforce that is representative of the nation as a whole.Specifically, EDU-STEM aims to: (1) reveal regional differences, if they exist, in the cultural climate for women and minorities in STEM disciplines; (2) develop a community of faculty that can serve as leaders--at their home institutions and nationally--in inclusive teaching and assessment; and (3) increase the number of faculty in the US that are familiar with barriers to inclusion in STEM, and can apply evidenced-based techniques for countering known barriers. Participants will engage in an "Inclusivity in STEM" workshop, including a discussion of comparative data on in-class participation, performance, and affective metrics such as susceptibility to stereotype threat. Network data will establish baseline measures of disparities between genders and ethnicities, if they exist, and detect any regional or institutional differences. Initial findings will test the hypothesis that regional factors (such as the Gender Gap Index, or the percentage representation of a given minority group), contribute to disparities in participation, susceptibility to stereotype threat, and sense of inclusion in STEM. This will set the stage for leveraging these data to plan on-site interventions at the home institutions of network partners, leading to greater engagement of science faculty with scientific teaching and discipline-based educational research. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/).

本科生公平与多样性(EDU-STEM)是一个合作网络，将实施以证据为基础的方法，以应对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域的公平障碍，最初的重点是生命科学。具体地说，EDU-STEM合作伙伴将把从心理学中学到的经验应用于大规模招生，这些入门课程往往针对历史上代表性不足的学生，如女性和代表性不足的少数族裔(URM)。这些学生面临着与学术能力无关的挑战，如歧视、被排斥感和冒名顶替者综合症，这些都会导致有据可查的表现不佳和高流失率。EDU-STEM网络将首先评估女性和URM学生的地位，方法是将来自不同机构的教授入门科学课程的个人聚集在一起，这些机构包括大型公立大学、社区学院、常春藤盟校和为少数群体服务的机构。通过调查三个广泛的指标：学业成绩、全班参与和情感指标(即那些与成绩结果没有直接关系的指标，如信心、兴趣和包容感觉)，将在不同的人口统计数据中量化导致成绩或表现差异的潜在机制。通过让来自不同机构的一系列教育工作者参与进来，这个网络将在通常不从事教育研究或循证教学技术的教职员工群体中建立公平意识的触须。该网络试图以实证的方式记录影响STEM参与的因素，以扩大STEM学习的机构能力，最终有助于建立一支代表整个国家的STEM劳动力队伍。具体地说，EDU-STEM的目标是：(1)揭示STEM学科中妇女和少数民族的文化氛围中的区域差异，如果存在的话；(2)发展一个教员社区，在本机构和国家--在包容性教学和评估中发挥领导者的作用；以及(3)增加熟悉STEM纳入障碍的美国教师数量，并能够应用基于证据的技术来对抗已知的障碍。学员将参加一个名为“STEM包容性”的研讨会，讨论课堂参与度、表现和情感指标(如对刻板印象威胁的敏感度)的比较数据。网络数据将确定性别和族裔之间差异的基线衡量标准(如果存在的话)，并发现任何区域或机构差异。初步调查结果将检验这样一种假设，即区域因素(如性别差距指数或特定少数群体的代表百分比)会导致STEM在参与、对陈规定型观念威胁的敏感性和包容性方面的差异。这将为利用这些数据在网络合作伙伴的家庭机构计划现场干预奠定基础，从而使理科教师更多地参与科学教学和基于学科的教育研究。该项目由生物科学局(BIO)生物基础设施部和教育与人力资源局(EHR)本科教育司联合资助，作为他们应对本科生物学教育愿景与变革：行动呼吁(http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/).)提出的挑战的一部分

项目成果

Do Small Classes in Higher Education Reduce Performance Gaps in STEM?

• DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biy056
• 发表时间: 2018-08-01
• 期刊: BIOSCIENCE
• 影响因子: 10.1
• 作者: Ballen, Cissy J.;Aguillon, Stepfanie M.;Cotner, Sehoya
• 通讯作者: Cotner, Sehoya