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

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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.