SBP: Can Teachers' "Psychological Affordances" Broaden Participation in Math and Science?

这一奖项是作为NSF的社会、行为和经济科学(SBE)博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划和SBE的科学扩大参与计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校David Yeager博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位早期职业科学家，研究教师的做法如何支持(或破坏)高中生的成长心态，这些做法在塑造学生在STEM管道中的长期坚持性方面的作用，以及这些做法对扩大代表不足的学生参与STEM的影响。许多9年级的学生未能进入10年级的数学课程，这将使他们走上毕业的轨道，拥有强大的数学和科学课程组合。具有成长型思维的学生--相信学习能力不是固定的，可以提高的--更有可能寻求学术挑战，因此可能会在整个高中阶段完成更高级的数学和科学课程。对于有色人种学生和来自工人阶级背景的学生(这里指的是人数不足)来说，成长心态的信念可能特别有益，他们在这些领域面临着成功的障碍。有两个因素可能会促进九年级数学课程中的成长心态：(A)接触教师提供成长的实践，这种做法强化和奖励以成长为导向的行为；(B)接受成长心态干预，使用态度改变技术来促进成长心态信念的采纳。此外，这些因素可能会相互作用：如果辅以强化这一信息的教师实践，成长心态干预可能会更有效。通过鼓励学生寻求学业挑战，有利于成长的实践和成长心态干预可能会推动学生在12年级之前学习更高级的数学和科学课程。这项拟议的研究有以下目标：(A)测试提供成长的做法是否影响九年级学生寻求挑战的倾向和随后的课程选择，(B)测试这些做法是否适度地影响成长心态干预对这些结果的影响，以及(C)调查这些做法如何改变干预效果。为了实现这些目标，PI将首先对全国学习心态研究进行二次分析，这是一项具有全国代表性的成长心态干预随机对照试验。这些分析将评估教师提供成长实践、提供成长心态干预以及他们对12年级数学和科学课程的互动的影响，并考察这些影响是否由学生寻求挑战的倾向的变化驱动。其次，PI将操纵提供成长的做法，并在实验室研究中提供成长心态干预，以测试这些做法对学生寻求挑战的因果影响。在每一项研究中，PI都将测试促进成长心态是否对代表不足的学生更有利。总而言之，这些研究将解决关于促进成长心态的经历的紧迫问题，以及这些经历如何促进进入大学STEM领域的准备。此外，这些研究将为教师专业发展活动的发展提供信息，并帮助确定有效的成长心态干预所需的背景条件。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。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and SBE's Science of Broadening Participation program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. David Yeager at The University of Texas at Austin, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating how teachers’ practices can support (or undermine) high-school students’ growth mindsets, the role of these practices in shaping students’ long-term persistence in the STEM pipeline, and the implications of these practices for broadening participation in STEM for underrepresented students. Many 9th grade students fail to progress to the 10th grade math courses that would keep them on track to graduate with a strong portfolio of math and science courses. Students with a growth mindset – the belief that academic ability is not fixed and can improve – are more likely to seek academic challenges and may therefore complete more advanced math and science courses throughout high school. Growth-mindset beliefs may be especially beneficial for students of color and students from working-class backgrounds (termed underrepresented here), who face barriers to success in these fields. Two factors may promote a growth mindset in 9th grade math courses: (a) exposure to a teacher's growth-affording practices, which reinforce and reward growth-oriented behavior, and (b) receipt of a growth-mindset intervention, which employs attitude-change techniques to facilitate adoption of growth-mindset beliefs. In addition, these factors may interact: growth-mindset interventions may be more powerful when complemented by teacher practices that reinforce the message. By encouraging students to seek academic challenges, growth-affording practices and growth-mindset interventions may propel students to take more advanced math and science courses through 12th grade. The proposed research has the following objectives: (a) to test whether growth-affording practices affect 9th grade students' challenge-seeking predisposition and subsequent course taking, (b) to test whether these practices moderate growth-mindset intervention effects on these outcomes, and (c) to investigate how these practices alter intervention effects. To address these objectives, the PI will first conduct secondary analyses of the National Study of Learning Mindsets, a nationally-representative randomized-controlled trial of a growth-mindset intervention. These analyses will assess the effects of teachers' growth-affording practices, provision of a growth-mindset intervention, and their interaction on math and science course taking through 12th grade, and examine whether such effects are driven by changes to students' challenge-seeking predisposition. Second, the PI will manipulate growth-affording practices and provision of a growth-mindset intervention in a laboratory study to test the causal effects of these practices on students' challenge seeking. In each of these studies, the PI will test whether promoting a growth mindset is more beneficial for underrepresented students. Together, these studies will address pressing questions about experiences that promote growth mindsets, and how these experiences can promote preparation to enter the STEM fields in college. In addition, these studies will inform the development of teacher professional development activities and help determine the contextual conditions necessary for growth-mindset interventions to be effective.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.