CAREER: Improving Access to STEM by Supporting Students’ Effective Use of Online Resources in Gateway Mathematics Courses

该项目旨在通过提高学生在数学入门课程中的学习，为国家利益服务。它将通过研究数学入门课程的学生如何使用在线资源来支持他们的学习来实现这一目标。该项目的一个重点领域是开发课堂干预措施，通过帮助所有学生制定在线学习的有效策略来支持STEM的学习。大学生越来越多地在自己的指导下，在导师的监督下利用网络资源。这种学习方法在数学入门课程中尤为显著，因为学生们经常将在线资源视为取得成功的关键。不幸的是，对于许多本科生来说，入门数学课程在通往STEM领域的道路上扮演着守门人的角色。因此，无效地利用在线资源来学习数学入门会降低学生坚持STEM的机会。该项目将在全国范围内进行调查，建立一个关于学生如何使用在线资源浏览数学入门课程的知识库。这些结果将用于制定课堂干预措施，帮助数学教师和学生对利用在线资源促进学生成功的最有效做法达成共识。本项目将采用解释性混合方法研究，开发学生如何利用在线资源学习数学的理论模型。这一理论将为课堂干预的迭代发展奠定基础，这将有助于弥合目前学生和教师对这些在线资源的作用的理解之间的分歧。这些干预措施将针对通常起到看门人作用的数学入门课程，特别是对第一代学生和来自STEM中代表性不足的社区的学生。对干预措施成功与否的评估将基于它们在多大程度上支持学生的数学理解和数学成绩。该项目将通过使用可应用于其他学科的严格方法论方法来开发学生在使用在线资源学习数学时采用的策略的理论模型，从而为STEM教育界做出贡献。在此过程中，该项目将有助于教育工作者和研究人员了解如何支持公平的STEM教学，通过研究如何根据学生背景在低年级数学课上使用在线资源。这项工作将汇集教育研究的多个方面，包括技术和教育、数学教育和信息素养，并通过合作开发形成性干预措施，为教学实践做出贡献，这些干预措施将通过在多个教室环境中迭代的基于设计的研究而得到完善。教师早期职业发展（Career）计划是美国国家科学基金会（NSF）范围内的一项活动，旨在支持有潜力在研究和教育中成为学术榜样的早期职业教师。本CAREER项目由改善本科STEM教育：教育和人力资源计划支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving student learning in introductory mathematics courses. It will do so by researching how students in introductory mathematics use online resources to support their learning. A key focus area of the project is developing classroom interventions that support access in STEM by helping all students develop productive strategies for online study. Undergraduate students increasingly make use of online resources under their own direction and out of view of their instructors. This study practice is particularly notable in introductory mathematics classes where students often see online resources as critical to their success. Unfortunately, introductory mathematics classes play a gatekeeping role on the path to STEM fields for many undergraduates. Thus, ineffective use of online resources to learn introductory mathematics can decrease a student’s chances of persisting in STEM. This project will use a nationwide survey to build a knowledge base about how students are using online resources to navigate their introductory mathematics classes. Those results will be used to develop classroom interventions that help mathematics instructors and students gain a shared understanding of the most effective practices for using online resources to promote student success. This project will use an explanatory mixed methods study to develop a theoretical model of how students work with online resources to learn mathematics. That theory will form the basis for the iterative development of classroom interventions that will help bridge the current divide between student and instructor understandings of the role of these online resources. These interventions will target introductory mathematics courses that often serve as gatekeepers, particularly for first-generation students and students from communities that are underrepresented in STEM. Evaluation of the interventions' success will be based on how well they support students’ mathematical understanding and achievement in mathematics. This project will contribute to the STEM education community by using a rigorous methodological approach, which can be applied to other disciplines, to develop a theoretical model of the strategies that students employ when working with online resources to learn mathematics. In doing so, the project will contribute to educators’ and researchers’ understanding of how to support equitable STEM instruction by examining how the use of online resources in lower-division mathematics classes differs according to student background. This work will bring together multiple strands of education research including technology and education, mathematics education, and information literacy, and contribute to pedagogical practice through the collaborative development of formative interventions that will be refined through iterative design-based research in multiple classroom settings. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-wide activity that supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. This CAREER project is supported by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources Program.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.