BPC-DP: Cultivating Academic Inclusion and Career Engagement to Increase the Persistence of Minoritized Students in Computing

尽管美国大学努力扩大技术专业的参与，但课堂学习环境和职业参与机会并没有发展到满足日益多样化的学生群体的独特需求。女性，黑人和西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生的声音和经验在现有的课程和教学实践中普遍代表性不足，这加剧了阻碍他们学习，参与和坚持技术专业的不平等。该示范项目旨在创造反映少数群体学生知识和技能的第一年学习经验。该项目团队将试行一种新的方法，将包容性教学实践与成熟的分析，设计，开发，实施和评估（ADDIE）课程设计模型相结合。宾夕法尼亚州立大学信息科学与技术学院的教师将参加包容性ADDIE研讨会，重新设计第一年的课程，并开发数字徽章证书。这些教师发展活动的预期成果包括第一年的学习经验，促进欢迎和支持不同学习者的课堂空间，加强师生互动，激励和奖励学生探索技术职业资源和机会。扩大参与的举措往往侧重于招收新生，而忽视了现有学生作为实现多样性目标的一项重要资产。拟议的研究使用包容性ADDIE，一个以行动为导向的框架，重新设想一个第一年的课程，提高学习经验和职业探索机会的少数民族学生主修IST。该项目小组将实施和评估两个可扩展和可复制的教师发展干预措施，考虑交叉性，并促进对课程和教学实践的修改，以支持学生的坚持。包容性ADDIE框架具有变革潜力，涉及与包容性课程和课程设计有关的更重要的种族和族裔理论。该项目还提供了一个可重复的方法和课程，为包容性的教学法和课程设计，支持少数民族学生在技术专业的持久性。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Despite efforts to broaden participation in technology majors at US universities, classroom learning environments and career engagement opportunities have not evolved to meet the unique needs of increasingly diverse student bodies. The voices and experiences of women, Black and Hispanic / Latinx students are commonly underrepresented in existing curriculum and instructional practices, which reinforces inequities that impede their learning, engagement, and persistence in technology majors. This demonstration project aims to create first-year learning experiences reflective of the knowledge and skills of minoritized students. The project team will pilot a novel approach for overlaying inclusive teaching practices on the well-established Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate (ADDIE) course design model. Instructors at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology will participate in Inclusive ADDIE workshops to redesign the first-year course and develop a digital badging credential. The expected outcomes of these faculty development activities include first-year learning experiences that foster classroom spaces that welcome and support diverse learners, strengthen student-teacher interactions, and incentivize and reward students’ exploration of technology career resources and opportunities. Broadening participation initiatives tend to focus on recruiting new students while overlooking current students as an essential asset in reaching diversity goals. The proposed study uses Inclusive ADDIE, an action-oriented framework, to reimagine a first-year course that enhances the learning experiences and career exploration opportunities of minoritized students majoring in IST. The project team will implement and assess two scalable and reproducible faculty development interventions that consider intersectionality and facilitate modifications to curriculum and instructional practices to bolster students’ persistence. The Inclusive ADDIE framework has transformative potential concerning more significant theorizing of race and ethnicity related to inclusive pedagogies and course design. This project also offers a repeatable methodology and curriculum for inclusive pedagogy and course design that supports the persistence of minoritized students in technology majors.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.