NRT-IGE: Enhancing Learning and Retention in Graduate Physics

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In recent years, education research has revolutionized undergraduate STEM education and physics education in particular. However, many of the positive changes to instructional practices and metrics for success have not been implemented at the graduate level. With a national economy increasingly dependent on highly-trained specialists in technical fields, this is a nationally-relevant problem. Similarly widespread are the problems of high attrition rates in physics graduate programs (on the order of 50%, nationally) and persistent underrepresentation of women, African Americans, Hispanics and other groups in Physics and STEM. These chronic shortcomings in diversity and in retention highlight the need for improved strategies in STEM education at the graduate level. One of the significant barriers identified is the traditionally-taught graduate core physics courses. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations of Graduate Education (IGE) Track to The Ohio State University will seek to develop, adopt, and assess innovative, research-based instructional best practices in graduate-level physics courses, especially focusing on factors affecting retention and diversity. In particular, the project is aimed at ensuring that the developed methods and materials are widely-applicable and adoptable by engaging multiple sites in the development process (initially four large Midwestern research universities), and collecting data on effectiveness at each site. A critical strategy of the project is to directly engage the graduate core course instructors of each participating institution. The approach applies and adapts a successful model for establishing and maintaining faculty learning communities to facilitate the professional development of instructors and the adoption of research-based instructional materials and methods. The project will also engage the department graduate studies committees to facilitate positive change in policies and practices in order to ensure systemic and lasting change. In a bottom-up process emerging from the needs of the faculty learning communities, instructional materials will be developed via a highly effective research-based iterative model including the identification of student difficulties and construction of materials to engage students in addressing those difficulties in an inclusive and welcoming environment. The approach includes feedback to the instructors and the project researchers via performance on content tests, course assignments, in-class performance, student surveys (e.g., attitude, belonging, motivation) and student and faculty surveys and interviews. This program will advance our knowledge of topic-specific instructional materials and methods to improve student learning at the graduate level, which is currently virtually non-existent, and can serve as a model for other STEM graduate programs.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.This project is co-funded by the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. AGEP funds research and the development, implementation, and investigation of models to transform the dissertation phase of doctoral education, postdoctoral training and/or faculty advancement of historically underrepresented minorities (URMs) in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and/or STEM education research.