Research Initiation: Peer-led, Student Instructed, Study Groups: A Formation of Engineers Framework for Understanding Self-Efficacy and Persistence in Transfer Students

研究启动：同行主导、学生指导、研究小组：理解转学生自我效能和坚持的工程师框架的形成

• 批准号: 2205001
• 负责人: Ryan Milcarek
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2205001&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Peer; led; Student

The 2012 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report advocated for one million new STEM graduates in the next decade and noted that increasing the retention of STEM majors to just fifty percent alone would generate approximately three-quarters of the targeted one million additional STEM degrees needed to maintain our nation’s economic competitiveness. Transfer students, who are disproportionately first-generation college students and students of color, are a target population for boosting engineering retention. Transfer students matriculate into their new universities and commonly experience transfer shock while taking gateway courses, often with limited social support. Low achievement and poor experiences in these early courses can result in transfer students leaving engineering all together. The project team proposes to research the effects of a PEER-led, Student Instructed, STudy group (PEERSIST) model in thermodynamics to promote student achievement, engineering self-efficacy, and identity formation, all of which are variables linked to engineering persistence. This study is led by a PI that has limited experience in the field of social science and engineering formation research, with mentorship from a team of experienced engineering education researchers. The PEERSIST model promotes academic competence through peer dialogue, in which disciplinary knowledge is socially co-constructed and refined over successive sessions. The project will explore four primary research questions: 1) To what extent does peer and near-peer support in a gateway course promote engineering students’ self-efficacy and identity formation?; 2) Do these effects, if any, accrue differently between transfer and first-time full-time students?; 3) To what extent does peer and near-peer support in a gateway course promote student course achievement and engineering persistence?; 4) Do these effects, if any, accrue differently between transfer and first-time full-time students? The study is grounded in social cognitive career theory (SCCT), which researchers have used extensively to understand student persistence in the pursuit of engineering degrees. This work will extend research into social-cognitive factors that influence STEM retention and persistence by operationalizing social-cognitive variables in an applied setting to promote engineering persistence. While prior research documents relationships between these variables, few studies have conducted quasi-experimental research that uses social-cognitive theory to cause STEM persistence, nor do such studies include one-year follow-up data. This quasi-experimental study will use a sequential explanatory quantitative to qualitative mixed-methods design in year 1 followed by a convergent quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods design in year 2. Course progress, survey measures, and interviews will be collected on students in the peer-led study groups and a comparison group that receives conventional recitation pedagogy. Dependent variables are cognitive (test grades) and social (engineering identity and self-efficacy). In the second year of the project, follow-up interviews and institutional data will be collected from the same students to assess persistence in engineering and the institution. Study results will have strong implications for research into student retention and persistence, particularly among transfer students. The one-year follow-up component provides a rare opportunity to identify the effects of social-cognitive factors on engineering persistence.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.

2012年总统科学和技术顾问委员会的报告主张在未来十年新增100万STEM毕业生，并指出，仅将STEM专业的保留率提高到50%就可以产生约四分之三的目标，即维持我国经济竞争力所需的100万个新增STEM学位。转学学生是第一代大学生和有色人种学生的比例不成比例的学生，是提高工程学保留率的目标人群。转学学生进入新的大学，在参加入门课程时通常会经历转学冲击，通常社会支持有限。这些早期课程的低成绩和糟糕的经验可能会导致转学学生一起离开工程学。该项目团队建议研究同伴主导、学生指导、学习小组(PEERSIST)模式在热力学中的影响，以促进学生成就、工程自我效能和认同形成，所有这些都是与工程坚持性有关的变量。这项研究由一位在社会科学和工程形成研究领域经验有限的PI领导，并由一支经验丰富的工程教育研究人员团队指导。PEERSIST模式通过同行对话促进学术能力，在这种对话中，学科知识是在连续的课程中以社会方式共同构建和提炼的。该项目将探索四个主要的研究问题：1)在门户课程中的同伴和近同伴支持在多大程度上促进工科学生的自我效能感和认同感的形成？2)这些影响在转学和首次全日制学生之间是否存在差异？3)在门户课程中的同伴和近同伴支持在多大程度上促进学生的课程成就和工程坚持性？4)这些影响在转学和首次全日制学生中是否有所不同？这项研究以社会认知职业理论(SCCT)为基础，研究人员广泛使用该理论来理解学生在追求工程学位的过程中的坚持性。这项工作将扩展对影响STEM保持和坚持的社会认知因素的研究，通过在应用环境中操作社会认知变量来促进工程坚持。虽然以前的研究记录了这些变量之间的关系，但很少有研究进行准实验研究，使用社会认知理论来导致STEM持续，这样的研究也没有包括一年的跟踪数据。这项准实验研究将在第一年采用从定量到定性的顺序解释性混合方法设计，然后在第二年采用收敛的定量和定性混合方法设计。课程进度、调查测量和访谈将收集来自同伴主导学习小组和接受传统背诵教学法的对照组的学生。因变量有认知(考试成绩)和社会(工程认同感和自我效能)。在项目的第二年，将从相同的学生那里收集后续访谈和机构数据，以评估他们在工程和机构方面的坚持性。研究结果将对学生留存和坚持的研究产生强烈的影响，特别是在转学学生中。为期一年的跟进部分提供了一个难得的机会来确定社会认知因素对工程持久性的影响。这一奖项反映了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。

项目成果

Work in Progress: PEERSIST – A Formation of Engineers Framework for Understanding Self-Efficacy and Persistence among Transfer Students

正在进行的工作：PEERSIST — 用于理解转学生自我效能和坚持的工程师框架的形成

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference exposition
• 作者: Jenkins, C.D.;Ta, T.;Milcarek, R.J.;Lichtenstein, G.;Brunhaver, S.R.;Smith, K.
• 通讯作者: Smith, K.