Implementing and Assessing Multi-Tiered Mentoring within Introductory Undergraduate Biology Courses

该项目旨在通过在本科生物学入门课程中采用多层次指导方法，提高STEM学生的保留率，从而为国家利益服务。该项目计划建立多层次的指导，让学生领袖和教师合作，在生物学课程中推广有效、包容和循证的教学实践。学生领袖和教师将参与有关有效指导和包容性教学实践的专业发展。这一努力的目标包括增加学生和教师之间的交流，以及提高学生在生物学入门课上的成功率和保留率。该项目旨在实施和评估一个多层次的指导模式，旨在显著提高来自不同背景的STEM学生的持久性和保留率。因此，该项目的结果可能与改善本科STEM教育并最终扩大STEM领域的参与广泛相关。该项目的总体目标是建立一个结构化的、多层次的指导模式，以改善学生和教师的沟通，最终使一年级和二年级的学生留在生物学入门课程中。高年级的学生领袖，报名参加了一门有学分的指导课程，将作为导师，与一小群入门课程的学生一起工作，帮助他们驾驭课堂体验。额外的付费学生导师是课程的校友，将作为补充导师，促进学生和教师之间的沟通。这种多层次的指导方法将使学生领袖参与改进入门课程，其附加目标是增加他们自己对科学的归属感和科学身份。此外，该项目将为教师提供教学支持和激励措施，以重新设计生物学入门课程，纳入多层次指导和包容性教学法。学生领袖和教师将共同努力，重新设计课程，将小组学习、持续评估、反馈和开放交流结合起来。该项目计划采用混合方法和岗前、学科内设计来评估多层次指导对入门课程学习者、学生领袖导师和教师教师的影响。评价将与外部评价人员和咨询委员会合作进行。该项目希望扩大对涉及学生领袖和教师的多层次指导影响的认识，这可能与促进学生在本科STEM教育中的成功广泛相关，特别是在入门课程中。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing student retention in STEM through a multi-tiered mentoring approach in introductory undergraduate biology courses. The project plans to establish multi-tiered mentoring to engage student leaders and instructors in collaborating to promote effective, inclusive, and evidence-based teaching practices in biology courses. Student leaders and faculty will participate in professional development about effective mentoring and inclusive teaching practices. Goals of the effort include increased communication between students and instructors, as well as improved student success and retention in introductory biology. The project intends to implement and assess a multi-tiered mentoring model designed to significantly improve persistence and retention of STEM students from diverse backgrounds. As such, results from the project could be broadly relevant to improving undergraduate STEM education and ultimately broadening participation in STEM fields. The overarching goals of this project are to develop a structured, multi-tiered mentoring model to improve student and instructor communication and ultimately the retention of first- and second-year students in introductory biology courses. Upper division student leaders, enrolled in a credit-bearing mentorship course, will serve as mentors and work with small groups of introductory course students to help them navigate the in-class experience. Additional paid student mentors who are alumni of the course will serve as supplemental instructors and facilitate communication between students and faculty. This multi-tiered mentoring approach will engage student leaders in improving introductory courses with the additional goal of increasing their own sense of belonging in science and their science identity. Further, the project will develop instructional supports and incentives for faculty to redesign introductory biology courses to incorporate multi-tiered mentoring and inclusive pedagogy. Student leaders and faculty will work together to re-design courses to incorporate small-group learning, continuous assessment, feedback, and open communication. The project plans to use a mixed-methods approach and a pre-post, within-subject design to assess the impact of multi-tiered mentoring on the introductory course learners, student leader mentors, and faculty instructors. Evaluation will be conducted in collaboration with an external evaluator and an advisory board. This project hopes to expand knowledge about the impact of multi-tiered mentoring, involving both student leaders and faculty, that could be broadly relevant to promoting student success in undergraduate STEM education, especially in introductory courses. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.