HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: FUERTE: Fostering Undergraduate Education, Retention and Transfer Environments

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，这个第二轨：实施和评估项目将增加获得STEM领域学士学位的拉丁裔学生的数量，包括那些第一次进入圣玛丽大学的学生和那些从合作伙伴西北Vista学院转学的学生。研究表明，拉丁裔学生在STEM劳动力中的代表性不足。造成这种差异的一个主要原因是，在STEM专业获得四年制学位的人太少。这不仅限制了他们的职业机会范围，而且还削弱了他们的社会流动性。纠正这一问题需要了解学校教育差异的根本原因。在系统层面上，拉丁裔学生面临着与转学过程相关的障碍，不一致的课程，不适合拉丁裔学生需求和经验的教学法，以及难以协商的建议过程。在个人层面上，许多人已经内化了刻板印象，这些刻板印象削弱了他们的自信，破坏了他们作为未来科学家的形象。因此，有效的应对措施必须首先承认，任何促进学生发展的努力都必须辅以制度适应。该项目完全接受了这一现实，所提议的活动反映了研究的进步，这些进步要求文化响应教学法、简化转移过程、发展适当的建议、学生与教师的研究和同伴指导。通过这些努力，目的是产生更公平和公正的教育成果，同时也促进拉丁裔学生向上的社会流动。该项目的具体目标是：1)通过创建无缝的转学途径，支持学生从两年制大学转到四年制大学；2)创建符合文化的课堂环境和学生支持服务系统；3)促进学生在STEM专业的进步；4)培养STEM的能力。社会认知理论应用于调整制度过程，以促进改进的归因倾向，提高科学能力感和更强的自我效能感，这将导致拉丁裔学生坚持到获得STEM学位的地步。由于他们的研究设计，可以在学生水平特征（如自我效能感）的变化与理想学术成果的可能性之间建立直接的联系。该项目的研究结果将对文献做出重大贡献，将已知的社会认知理论扩展到一个独特的拉丁校园。最终，HSI项目旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并在HSI建立能力。考虑到hsi的多样性和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区转型，并促进基础研究(1)关于参与式学生学习，(2)关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及(3)提高我们对如何在hsi建立机构能力的理解。在HSI计划的支持下，我们将从这些方法中汲取新的知识，了解如何实现这些目标。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: Implementation and Evaluation Project will increase the number of Latinx students who obtain baccalaureate degrees in STEM fields, including both those who enter St. Mary’s University as first-time freshmen and those who transfer from their partner, Northwest Vista College. Research indicates that Latinx students are underrepresented in the STEM workforce. A major reason for this discrepancy is that too few are earning four-year degrees in STEM majors. Not only does this restrict the range of occupational opportunities available to them, but it also attenuates their social mobility. Rectifying this problem requires understanding the root causes of differential outcomes of schooling. At the system level, Latinx students confront barriers associated with the transfer process, misaligned curricula, pedagogies unsuitable for Latinx students’ needs and experiences, and advising processes that are difficult to negotiate. At the individual level, many have internalized stereotypes that deflate their self-confidence and undermine their image of themselves as future scientists. Effective responses, therefore, must start with acknowledging that any efforts to scaffold student development must be supplemented by institutional adaptation. This project fully embraces this reality, and the activities proposed reflect research advancements that call for culturally responsive pedagogy, streamlining of the transfer process, developmentally appropriate advising, student-faculty research, and peer mentoring. Through these efforts, the aim is to produce educational outcomes that are more equitable and just while also facilitating the upward social mobility of their Latinx students.The specific aims of the project are 1) to support the transfer of students from a two-year to a four-year institution by creating a seamless transfer pathway, 2) to create culturally responsive classroom environments and a system of student support services, 3) to facilitate student progression through STEM majors, and 4) to build competency in STEM. Social cognitive theory is applied toward adapting institutional processes to foster improved attributional tendencies, a heightened sense of competence in science, and stronger feelings of self-efficacy, which will lead Latinx students to persist to the point of earning a STEM degree. Because of their research design, straightforward connections can be made between changes in student-level characteristics, such as self-efficacy, and the probability of desirable academic outcomes. The findings from this project will make a significant contribution to the literature by extending what is known about social cognitive theory to a distinctly Latinx campus. Ultimately, the HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Supported by the HSI Program, we will draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.