Successful Transition to the Academic Realm 2.0

在国家科学基金会改善本科生STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源(IUSE：EHR)的支持下，该项目旨在通过改进STEM课程和STEM本科生的学业表现来服务于国家利益。在进入大学时打算主修STEM专业的美国学生中，不到一半的人坚持获得STEM学位。对于来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生来说，损失更大。“看门人”入门课程的失败率/退学率往往很高，成为学生成功的主要障碍。许多提高学生成绩的努力只集中在学业准备和辅导上。然而，研究表明，其他因素也会影响学生的表现。这些因素包括教学效率低下、学生在适应大学的社会和学术文化方面存在困难、学术信心下降，以及STEM社区内的疏离感或感觉像个冒名顶替者。为了提高STEM专业学生的学习成绩，该项目将设计和实施旨在改善教学的教师专业发展，以及STEM课程的课程改进和以同伴指导/学习社区为基础的学生支持方法。这个项目有可能进一步了解早期干预是如何影响学生学习的，这些干预既关注认知因素，也关注非认知因素。由于弗吉尼亚州立大学是位于弗吉尼亚州中部的一所历史悠久的黑人公立土地赠与大学，该项目有可能扩大学生在STEM的成功，从而为美国受过良好教育的多元化STEM工作队伍做出贡献。该项目建立在之前的努力基础上，这些努力导致生物专业入门课程的学生成功人数增加。项目目标包括：1)将成功的生物专业学生模式的关键组成部分整合到其他STEM专业的生物学课程中；2)开发和实施同伴指导结构，将以循证为基础的和试点的实践结合起来，目标是有效的学习习惯，并通过学习社区最大限度地提高学生的参与度；3)实施严格的评估计划，以确定项目的影响，基于认知测量(成绩、概念清单、持久性等)。非认知性测量(自我效能、自我调节、STEM认同感等)。该项目的评估部分将提供关于项目活动影响的形成性评估，并在早期的看门人课程中探索该计划在学生群体和教职员工范围内和之外的影响。该项目制定的成果和活动将通过讲习班和在地区和国家会议上的发言、在同行机构的发言以及在学术期刊上发表文章来传播。该项目将包括一项关于在STEM看门人课程中使用同伴主导的团队学习范式的研究，以减轻低成就的标准预测因素，并提高学业成绩。因此，它有可能产生关于提高STEM学生表现的战略的新知识。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by improving STEM curricula and the academic performance of STEM undergraduates. Of the US students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field, less than half persist to earn a STEM degree. The loss is even higher for students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM. Introductory "gatekeeper" courses often have a high failure/withdrawal rate, resulting in a major barrier to student success. Many efforts to improve student performance have focused only on academic preparation and tutoring. However, research has demonstrated that other factors contribute to student performance. Such factors include ineffective teaching, difficulties students have in negotiating social and academic cultures in the university, diminished academic confidence, and a sense of disconnection or feeling like an imposter within the STEM community. To improve the academic performance of STEM majors, this project will design and implement faculty professional development aimed at improving teaching, as well as curricular enhancements to STEM courses and a peer mentoring/ learning community-based approach to student support. This project has the potential to further understanding about how early interventions that focus on both cognitive and non-cognitive factors affect student learning. Since Virginia State University is a historically black public land-grant university in central Virginia, the project has the potential to broaden student success in STEM, thus contributing to a well-educated, diverse US STEM workforce.This project builds on previous efforts that resulted in increased student success in the introductory course for biology majors. Project objectives include: 1) To integrate critical components of the successful biology majors' model into the biology course for other STEM majors; 2) To develop and implement a peer mentoring structure that integrates evidence-based and piloted practices targeting effective academic habits and maximizing student engagement through learning communities; and 3) To implement a rigorous evaluation plan to determine program impacts, based on cognitive measures (grades, concept inventory, persistence, etc.) and non-cognitive measures (self-efficacy, self-regulation, STEM identity, etc.). The evaluation component of the project will provide formative assessment regarding the impact of project activities, and explore the impacts of the program within and beyond the student cohorts and faculty in the early gatekeeper courses. Results and activities developed by this project will be disseminated through workshops and presentations at regional and national conferences, presentations at peer institutions, and publications in scholarly journals. The project will include a research study about the use of a peer-led team learning paradigm informed by social cognitive theory to mitigate standard predictors of low achievement and improve academic performance in STEM gatekeeper courses. Thus, it has the potential to will generate new knowledge about strategies to increase STEM student performance. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.