Promoting Undergraduate STEM Retention through Self-Efficacy

在国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目的资助下，卡罗尔大学支持STEM倡议：通过自我效能促进STEM保留将为低收入学生提供支持，这些学生证明有经济需求和学术前景，可以在卡罗尔大学的STEM学科取得成功。该项目将在五年内为攻读应用物理、生物化学、化学、计算机科学和数学学士学位的学生提供128个奖学金。为了在这些STEM专业中促进学业成功和保持，该计划将：(1)将自我效能建设战略纳入卡罗尔大学文科课程的普通教育课程，(2)通过由目标领域一年级课程教师组成的教员专业学习社区，促进对项目目标的支持，以及(3)使用同伴领导的学习小组和社区建设活动，支持自我效能和保留。该项目将把促进自我效能发展的重点教学整合到一年级学生的基础普通教育课程中。它将检查这一教学是否提高了目标STEM专业的毅力，如果是的话，它是如何做到的。在自我效能感研究的基础上，这个项目应用思维习惯策略和实践(例如，坚持、灵活思考元认知、努力准确、提出问题和提出问题)来帮助学生建立学术技能和自我意识。该项目的活动有助于建立关于STEM留存和学生学业成功的知识库。这一结果将进一步成为帮助其他小型学校提高毕业率并有效地为学生在大学毕业后取得成功做好准备的典范。

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the Carroll University Pro-STEM Initiative: Promoting STEM Retention through Self-Efficacy will provide support to low-income students with demonstrated financial need and academic promise to succeed in STEM disciplines at Carroll University. The project will fund 128 scholarships over five years for students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in applied physics, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics. To promote academic success and retention within these STEM majors, the program will: (1) incorporate self-efficacy building strategies in general education courses of Carroll University's liberal arts curriculum, (2) foster support of project goals through a faculty professional learning community populated by those who teach first-year courses in the targeted fields, and (3) use peer-led study groups and community building activities that support self-efficacy and retention.This project will integrate focused instruction that promotes self-efficacy development into foundational general education courses for first year students. It will examine whether or not this instruction improves persistence in the targeted STEM majors, and if so how it does so. Building on self-efficacy research, this project applies Habits of Mind strategies and practices (e.g., persisting, thinking flexibly metacognition, striving for accuracy, and questioning and posing problems) to help students build academic skills and self-awareness. Activities of the project contribute to the knowledge base on STEM retention and student academic success. The results will further serve as a model to aid other small schools in increasing completion rates and effectively preparing students for success beyond college.