Conference Proposal: Developing a National Research Agenda for Academic Support in STEM Higher Education

获得科学探究和STEM职业是我们国家的一个重要目标。 该项目将通过加强学术研究的基础设施，提供学术支持（例如，辅导;学术辅导）。学术支持在美国学院和大学中很常见，每年都是数百万学生STEM学习环境的重要组成部分。然而，尽管人们对调查高等教育中STEM学生学习的兴趣很高，但关于学术支持服务的研究却非常少。一个强大的，基于研究的学术支持的理解将支持学术支持服务的改进和更好的循证课堂实践和课堂外的STEM教育经验之间的一致性。 该项目将组织和提供一个会议，旨在建立一个国家研究议程，在大学一级的STEM学术支持。会议将汇集学术支持专业人士，高等教育学者，高等教育管理人员，STEM教师，STEM教育研究人员和学生，制定学术支持的研究议程，涉及学者和从业人员，解决真实的和紧迫的问题，并围绕美国学院和大学的学术支持计划制定更明智和更系统的决策。为期一天半的计划将：（a）寻求确定有关STEM学术支持的紧迫研究问题;（B）开发新知识以支持这项研究;（c）鼓励从业者和学者之间的合作;（d）使参与者能够为未来的工作制定具体计划，并继续发展他们的研究和研究合作技能，部分通过虚拟合作平台。最终的白色论文将有助于推动关于STEM学术支持研究的全国性对话。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Access to scientific inquiry and STEM careers is an important goal for our nation. This project will help to improve undergraduate STEM education by strengthening the infrastructure for scholarly research into the provision of academic support (e.g., tutoring; academic coaching) for STEM undergraduates. Academic support is commonplace in U.S. colleges and universities, and it forms a critical component of the STEM learning environment for millions of students each year. Yet, despite the high level of interest in investigating student learning in STEM in higher education, there has been remarkably little research about academic-support services. A robust, research-based understanding of academic support will support improvements in academic support services and better alignment between evidence-based classroom practices and out-of-classroom STEM educational experiences. This project will organize and offer a conference designed to establish a national research agenda for STEM academic support at the college level. The conference will bring together academic support professionals, higher education scholars, higher education administrators, STEM faculty, STEM education researchers, and students to develop a research agenda for academic support that involves scholars and practitioners, addresses real and pressing questions, and sets a path toward better-informed and more systematic decision-making around academic-support programming in U.S. colleges and universities. The day-and-a-half-long program will: (a) seek to identify pressing research questions about STEM academic support; (b) develop new knowledge to support this research; (c) encourage collaboration among practitioners and scholars; and (d) enable participants to create concrete plans for future work, and to continue developing their research and research-collaboration skills, in part via a virtual collaboration platform. A culminating white paper will help drive a national conversation about research in STEM academic support.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.