Achieving Equitable Persistence in STEM with a Data-informed Student-centered Transformation of the First-year College Experience

通过以数据为依据、以学生为中心的大学一年级体验转型，实现 STEM 的公平坚持

• 批准号: 2122762
• 负责人: Nicole Bennett
• 金额: $ 299.67万
• 依托单位: CUNY Hunter College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2026-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2122762&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Achieving; Equitable; Persistence; STEM; Data

This project aims to develop and deploy a set of effective success practices to transform first-year STEM education in order to attain equitable educational outcomes in STEM, both at Hunter College and other Hispanic-serving institutions. While many Hispanic students enter Hunter College interested in STEM, relatively few persist and graduate in their chosen STEM majors due to challenges during their first year. With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program), the project team will deliver several STEM success initiatives intended to enhance first-year STEM education and determine which policies and practices are the most effective for supporting STEM success at Hunter College. The effective practices will be embedded across STEM disciplines at Hunter College, thereby transforming its educational landscape. The project’s results will be disseminated broadly, enabling other campuses to deploy similar best practices. This is expected to reduce equity gaps and improve STEM outcomes for Hispanic students at Hunter College and other HSIs, thereby contributing to a larger and more diverse STEM workforce.This project aims to enhance the first-year experience among STEM students by deploying and studying the effectiveness of a range of pedagogical practices. These include gateway STEM course revisions, faculty pedagogical development, course-based research experiences, STEM-focused learning communities, STEM-readiness activities, and STEM-focused co-curricular supports. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to examine four key questions. First is how these enhancements relate to students’ short- and long-term academic success, motivation, belonging, and commitment to STEM. Second is how students’ motivation and self-concept as science learners relate to their success and persistence in STEM. Third is how students’ perception of institutional climate relates to their success and persistence in STEM. Fourth is how contextual and situational factors relate to success across these different initiatives. The new knowledge generated from this project will be disseminated to faculty, researchers, policy makers, and institutional leaders within Hunter College and the wider higher education community, via presentations, publications, and conferences. The anticipated benefits of this project include a greater sense of belonging and motivation among diverse STEM students; increased persistence and success in STEM among Hispanic students; equitable outcomes for students in their chosen STEM discipline; an enhanced STEM educational experience; increased collaboration between STEM and STEM education faculty; and increased stakeholder commitment to transformative STEM educational practices. This project will also generate knowledge on the institutional transformation process itself by deepening understanding of how intra-institutional teams can function to support students. 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. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also 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.

该项目旨在开发和部署一套有效的成功实践，以改变第一年的STEM教育，以实现STEM的公平教育成果，无论是在亨特学院和其他西班牙裔服务机构。虽然许多西班牙裔学生进入亨特学院时对STEM感兴趣，但由于第一年的挑战，相对较少的学生坚持并毕业于他们选择的STEM专业。在改善本科STEM教育的支持下：西班牙裔服务机构计划（HSI计划），项目团队将提供几个STEM成功计划，旨在加强第一年的STEM教育，并确定哪些政策和实践是最有效的支持STEM成功亨特学院。有效的实践将嵌入亨特学院的STEM学科，从而改变其教育格局。该项目的成果将广泛传播，使其他校区能够采用类似的最佳做法。预计这将减少公平差距，提高亨特学院和其他HSIs的西班牙裔学生的STEM成果，从而有助于形成更大和更多样化的STEM劳动力。该项目旨在通过部署和研究一系列教学实践的有效性，提高STEM学生的第一年经验。这些包括网关STEM课程修订，教师教学发展，基于课程的研究经验，以STEM为重点的学习社区，STEM准备活动和以STEM为重点的课外支持。将采用定量和定性方法来研究四个关键问题。首先是这些增强如何与学生的短期和长期的学术成功，动机，归属感和对STEM的承诺。第二，学生的动机和自我概念作为科学学习者如何与他们的成功和坚持STEM。第三，学生对机构气候的看法如何与他们在STEM中的成功和坚持有关。第四，背景和情境因素如何与这些不同举措的成功相关。从这个项目产生的新知识将传播给教师，研究人员，政策制定者和机构领导人在亨特学院和更广泛的高等教育界，通过演示文稿，出版物和会议。该项目的预期效益包括不同的STEM学生之间的归属感和动力更大;增加西班牙裔学生在STEM中的持久性和成功;学生在他们选择的STEM学科中的公平结果;增强STEM教育体验; STEM和STEM教育教师之间的合作增加;并增加利益相关者对变革性STEM教育实践的承诺。该项目还将通过加深对机构内团队如何发挥作用以支持学生的理解，产生关于机构转型过程本身的知识。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建立HSI的能力。实现这些目标，鉴于不同的性质和背景下的HSIs，需要创新的方法，激励机构和社区转型，促进基础研究（一）参与学生学习，（二）关于如何有效地多样化和增加STEM的参与，以及（三）提高我们对如何在HSIs建立机构能力的理解。HSI计划所支持的项目也将从这些方法中汲取经验，以产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF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。

项目成果

“I Don’t Back Away from a Fight”: Examining First Year Undergraduate Latinas’ Perseverance in STEM

“我不会从战斗中退缩”：审视一年级本科拉丁裔学生在 STEM 方面的毅力

• DOI: 10.1007/s41979-024-00120-5
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Journal for STEM Education Research
• 作者: Placa, Nicora;Nick, Christine;Lee, Jihye
• 通讯作者: Lee, Jihye