Measuring Chemistry-Specific Mindset Beliefs of Students in Undergraduate Chemistry Courses

大学生对智力和学习的信念会影响他们的学业成就和成功。具有固定心态信念的学生认为他们的智力是不可改变的，而具有成长心态的学生认为他们可以通过时间和努力来提高他们的智力。成长心态信念与更好的学习成绩和STEM成就相关，包括来自传统上在STEM领域代表性不足的群体的学生。然而，人们对特定领域的心态信念在学生在大学化学入门课程中取得成功的作用的了解有限，而这对于留住许多STEM专业的学生至关重要。在NSF的改善本科STEM教育（IUSE）计划的支持下，该项目旨在通过开发化学特定思维信念的有效和可靠措施来服务于国家利益。此外，项目团队将调查这些思维信念和学生在普通化学和有机化学课程的成果之间的关系。能够测量化学特定的思维信念将有助于研究人员和教师更好地了解什么干预措施是有效的支持学生在STEM中的成功。格鲁吉亚州立大学和波特兰州立大学的一组研究人员将调查学生对化学智力的内隐信念，并制定这些信念的衡量标准。内隐智力信念理论认为，具有固定思维信念的学生倾向于回避挑战性情境，而具有成长思维信念的学生则更倾向于选择挑战性任务并从事导致成功的行为。然而，学生的思维信念在化学课程中的作用并没有得到很好的研究。为此，三个具体目标将指导该项目。第一部分是描述普通化学和有机化学课程学生的化学特定思维信念。二是发展和心理测量学评估一个适当的措施，化学思维信念的本科生。三是了解化学思维定势与化学课程各种情感和认知结果的关系。为了实现这些目标，项目团队将对学生进行定性访谈，以了解他们对与化学有关的智力的隐含信念。该团队还将进行认知访谈，以评估新设计的项目的解释和可读性，以衡量化学特定的心态。此外，将对该项目产生的数据进行心理测量分析，以评估有效性和可靠性。该项目小组将从格鲁吉亚州立大学（一所为少数民族服务的大型机构）以及格鲁吉亚格温内特学院、格鲁吉亚南方大学和斯佩尔曼学院收集数据。这将为来自STEM中不同和代表性不足的群体的学生提供大量投入，预计将提高该项目在全国范围内广泛宣传STEM教育的能力。一个由项目外部专家组成的咨询委员会将提供关于研究结果的反馈意见，并就更广泛的影响提出建议。项目团队将在特定学科和STEM范围的教育期刊上广泛传播研究结果，并将寻求机会通过美国化学学会化学教育研究委员会和化学教育两年一度的会议举办网络研讨会和讲习班。此外，最终的心态措施将通过化学仪器审查和评估图书馆（CHIRAL）门户网站公开提供。这种化学特定的心态措施的发展将提供化学教育界的理论基础的措施，以促进特定领域的心态信念的理解，并提供适当的措施，以评估化学特定的心态干预的影响。这项工作还将为其他STEM学科的特定领域思维信念的发展和测量提供一个模型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

College students’ beliefs about intelligence and learning can impact their academic achievement and success. Students with fixed mindset beliefs view their intelligence as unchangeable, while students with growth mindset believe they can improve their intelligence with time and effort. Growth mindset beliefs are associated with better academic performance and achievement in STEM, including for students from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. However, there is limited understanding of the role of domain-specific mindset beliefs in students’ success in introductory college chemistry courses, which is pivotal for retaining students in many STEM majors. With support from NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, this project seeks to serve the national interest by developing a valid and reliable measure of chemistry-specific mindset beliefs. In addition, the project team will investigate the relationships between these mindset beliefs and student outcomes in general chemistry and organic chemistry courses. Being able to measure chemistry-specific mindset beliefs will assist researchers and instructors in better understanding what interventions are effective for supporting students’ success in STEM.A team of researchers at Georgia State University and Portland State University will investigate students’ implicit beliefs about chemistry intelligence and develop a measure of these beliefs. Theories of implicit beliefs about intelligence posit that students with fixed mindset beliefs tend to avoid challenging situations while students with growth mindset are more likely to choose challenging tasks and engage in behaviors that lead to success. However, the role student mindset beliefs play in chemistry courses is not well studied. To this end, three specific objectives will guide this project. First is to characterize the chemistry-specific mindset beliefs of students in general and organic chemistry courses. Second is to develop and psychometrically evaluate an appropriate measure of chemistry mindset beliefs for undergraduate students. And third is to understand the relations between chemistry mindset and various affective and cognitive outcomes for chemistry courses. To accomplish these objectives, the project team will conduct qualitative interviews with students to understand their implicit beliefs about intelligence as it relates to chemistry. The team will also conduct cognitive interviews to assess the interpretation and readability of newly-designed items to measure chemistry-specific mindsets. In addition, the data generated by this project will be subjected to psychometric analyses to assess validity and reliability. The project team will collect data from Georgia State University, a large minority-serving institution, as well as from Georgia Gwinnett College, Georgia Southern University, and Spelman College. This will provide substantial input from students from diverse and underrepresented groups in STEM, which is expected to enhance the ability of this project to widely inform STEM education nationally. An advisory board of experts external to the project will provide feedback on the research findings and present recommendations for broader impacts. The project team will widely disseminate the results in discipline-specific and STEM-wide education journals, and will also seek opportunities to present webinars and workshops through the American Chemical Society Chemistry Education Research Committee and the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education. Moreover, the final mindset measure will be made publicly available through the Chemistry Instrument Review and Assessment Library (CHIRAL) portal. The development of this chemistry-specific mindset measure will provide the chemistry education community with a theoretically grounded measure to advance the understanding of domain-specific mindset beliefs and provide an appropriate measure to assess the impact of chemistry-specific mindset interventions. This work will also provide a model for developing and measuring domain-specific mindset beliefs in other STEM disciplines.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.