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

2012年总统科学技术顾问委员会的报告主张在未来十年内增加100万STEM毕业生，并指出仅将STEM专业的保留率提高到50%就可以产生大约四分之三的目标，即保持美国经济竞争力所需的100万额外STEM学位。转校生在第一代大学生和有色人种学生中所占比例过高，他们是提高工程师留用率的目标群体。转校生进入新大学后，通常会在学习入门课程时经历“转校潮”，通常社会支持有限。在这些早期课程中，低成绩和糟糕的经历可能会导致转学生一起离开工程系。项目团队建议研究热力学中peer - leading， Student - directive, STudy group （peerist）模型对促进学生成绩、工程自我效能和身份形成的影响，所有这些都是与工程持久性相关的变量。本研究由一名在社会科学和工程形态研究领域经验有限的PI领导，并由一组经验丰富的工程教育研究人员指导。pererist模式通过同伴对话促进学术能力，在这种对话中，学科知识是社会共同构建的，并在连续的会议中得到完善。本项目将探讨四个主要研究问题：1)门户课程中的同伴和近同伴支持在多大程度上促进了工科学生的自我效能感和身份形成；2)这些影响（如果有的话）在转学生和首次全日制学生之间是否不同？3)门户课程中的同伴和近同伴支持在多大程度上促进了学生的课程成绩和对工程的坚持？4)这些影响（如果有的话）在转学生和首次全日制学生之间是否不同？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SCCT来理解学生在追求工程学位方面的坚持。这项工作将通过在应用环境中操作社会认知变量来促进工程持久性，从而扩展对影响STEM保留和持久性的社会认知因素的研究。虽然之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持久性，这些研究也不包括一年的随访数据。这个准实验研究将在第一年使用顺序解释定量到定性混合方法设计，然后在第二年使用收敛的定量和定性混合方法设计。课程进度，调查措施和访谈将收集学生在同行领导的学习小组和接受传统背诵教学法的比较组。因变量是认知（考试成绩）和社会（工程身份和自我效能）。在项目的第二年，将从这些学生中收集后续访谈和机构数据，以评估他们对工程和机构的坚持。研究结果将对研究学生的保留和坚持，特别是在转校生中有很强的影响。为期一年的随访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。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。

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.