Graduating the Next Generation of Engineering Technology Professionals by Promoting Competence, Group Identity, and Autonomy

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需要，通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在技术（RIT）的罗切斯特研究所证明的经济需要的保留和毕业。该项目为期5年，将为36名攻读土木、计算机、电气、机电、机械、机器人和制造工程技术学士学位的本科生提供奖学金。学生将在RIT的前五个学期获得奖学金支持。 为了提高保留率，该项目将使用教师和同伴导师，创建个性化的学者支持网络，并通过教师发展改善教学，旨在为所有学生营造一个更友好的环境。由于非洲裔美国人，拉丁美洲人和美洲原住民（AALANA），第一代和聋哑/重听学生在RIT注册工程技术课程的百分比超过国家水平，该项目的更广泛影响在于其增加工程劳动力多样性的潜力。该项目也有可能显着推进解决社会和环境因素的最佳实践的理解，这些因素在历史上导致了工程技术课程中代表性不足的学生的保留率较低。因此，它支持NSF的一个关键战略目标，即培养一支更有能力、更多样化的STEM员工队伍。该项目的指导原则是通过实施支持网络和教学改革，提高工程技术学生的能力，发展相关性（或群体认同感），培养自主性。正如自我决定理论（SDT）所假设的那样，当这三个基本的心理需求，能力，相关性和自主性得到满足时，个体将内在地激励自己的个人成长和幸福。这个项目很重要，因为它将有助于填补文献中的空白，以证据为基础的战略，以提高保留代表性不足的群体，特别是在工程技术。本研究将探讨三种针对社会与环境因素而设计的策略，是否确实能提高学者的学习动机与坚持力。首先是有计划的实施，使用SDT框架，以解决自主性，能力和相关性的基本心理需求。其次是利用教师和同行导师沿着个性化的学者支持网络。第三是采用循证实践，以参与和改善工程技术课堂上不同群体学生的学习。这些策略的有效性将使用GPA和保留数据沿着以及SDT测量工具的结果进行定量评估。评估还包括一个定性部分，重点小组访谈奖学金获得者。该项目的成果将通过会议论文、同行评审期刊以及RIT和工程技术学院的社交媒体账户进行传播。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Over its 5-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 36 undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Civil, Computer, Electrical, Electrical Mechanical, Mechanical, and Robotics and Manufacturing Engineering Technology. Students will receive scholarship support for their first five semesters at RIT. To increase retention, the project will use faculty and peer mentors, create individualized scholar support networks, and improve instruction through faculty development aimed at fostering a more welcoming environment for all students. Because the percentage of African American, Latin American and Native American (AALANA), first generation, and deaf/hard of hearing students enrolled in Engineering Technology programs at RIT exceeds national levels, the broader impact of this project lies in its potential to increase diversity in the engineering workforce. This project also has the potential to significantly advance the understanding of best practices that address the social and environmental factors which have historically contributed to low retention of underrepresented students in Engineering Technology programs. Thus, it supports a key strategic objective of NSF, to grow a more capable and diverse STEM workforce. The guiding principle of this project is to promote competence, develop relatedness (or a sense of group identity), and nurture autonomy in Engineering Technology students through the implementation of support networks and pedagogical reform. As posited by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), when these three basic psychological needs, competence, relatedness, and autonomy are met, individuals will be intrinsically motivated to support their own personal growth and well-being. This project is important because it will help to fill the void in the literature on evidence-based strategies to improve retention of underrepresented groups specifically in Engineering Technology. This project will investigate if three particular strategies designed to address social and environmental factors, indeed improve scholars' motivation and persistence. First is programmatic implementation, using an SDT framework, to address the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Second is utilization of faculty and peer mentors along with individualized scholar support networks. Third is the adoption of evidence-based practices to engage and improve learning for a diverse group of students in the Engineering Technology classroom. The effectiveness of these strategies will be evaluated quantitatively using GPA and retention data along with results from an SDT measurement instrument. The evaluation also includes a qualitative component featuring focus group interviews with scholarship recipients. The results of this project will be disseminated through conference papers, peer reviewed journals, and RIT's and the College of Engineering Technology's social media accounts. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.