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理事会的报告主张在未来十年增加100万名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，即保持我们国家的经济竞争力所需的100万个STEM学位。 转学生，谁是不成比例的第一代大学生和有色人种的学生，是提高工程保留的目标人群。转学生进入新的大学，在学习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就和糟糕的经验可能会导致转学生一起离开工程。项目组建议研究一个同行为主导的，学生指导的，研究组（PEERSIST）模型在热力学的影响，以促进学生的成绩，工程自我效能和身份的形成，所有这些都是与工程持久性的变量。本研究由PI领导，该PI在社会科学和工程形成研究领域经验有限，并由经验丰富的工程教育研究人员团队提供指导。 PEERSIST模式通过同侪对话促进学术能力，其中学科知识在连续的会议上被社会共同构建和完善。本研究将探讨四个主要的研究问题：（1）在入门课程中，同侪和近同侪的支持在多大程度上促进了工科学生的自我效能感和身份认同的形成？2)这些影响，如果有的话，在转学生和第一次全日制学生之间是否有不同的累积？3)在入门课程中，同伴和近同伴的支持在多大程度上促进了学生的课程成绩和工程持久性？4)这些影响，如果有的话，在转学生和第一次全日制学生之间是否有不同的累积？这项研究基于社会认知职业理论（SCCT），研究人员广泛使用该理论来了解学生对工程学位的追求。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，从而将研究扩展到影响STEM保留和持久性的社会认知因素。虽然先前的研究记录了这些变量之间的关系，但很少有研究进行了使用社会认知理论导致STEM持久性的准实验研究，这些研究也不包括一年的随访数据。这项准实验性研究将在第1年使用顺序解释性定量定性混合方法设计，然后在第2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研究小组和对照组，接受传统的背诵教学法。 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，将从同一批学生那里收集后续访谈和机构数据，以评估工程和机构的持久性。研究结果将有很强的影响研究到学生的保留和持久性，特别是在转学生。为期一年的后续部分提供了一个难得的机会，以确定社会认知因素对工程持久性的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是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的支持。

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.