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

该项目旨在通过在本科生生物学入门课程中采用多层次辅导方法，提高学生在STEM的留存率，从而服务于国家利益。该项目计划建立多层次的指导，让学生领袖和教师合作，在生物课程中促进有效、包容和循证的教学实践。学生领袖和教职员工将参与有关有效指导和包容性教学实践的专业发展。这项工作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程中的成功和保持。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学生的持久力和留存率。因此，该项目的结果可能与改善本科生STEM教育和最终扩大STEM领域的参与广泛相关。这个项目的总体目标是开发一个结构化的、多层次的指导模式，以改善学生和教师的沟通，并最终留住一年级和二年级的学生参加生物入门课程。参加学分辅导课程的高年级学生领袖将担任导师，与一小群入门课程的学生合作，帮助他们驾驭课堂体验。作为本课程校友的额外付费学生导师将作为补充讲师，促进师生之间的沟通。这种多层次的指导方法将促使学生领袖改进入门课程，并增加他们对科学的归属感和科学认同感。此外，该项目将为教师提供教学支持和激励，以重新设计生物学入门课程，以纳入多层次指导和包容性教学法。学生领袖和教职员工将共同努力，重新设计课程，纳入小组学习、持续评估、反馈和开放交流。该项目计划使用混合方法和事前、事后、学科内的设计来评估多层次辅导对入门课程学习者、学生领袖导师和教员讲师的影响。将与一名外部评估员和一个咨询委员会合作进行评价。这个项目希望扩大关于多层次指导的影响的知识，包括学生领袖和教职员工，这可能与促进学生在本科STEM教育中的成功有关，特别是在入门课程中。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了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。

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.