Reimagining Grading to Support Nontraditional and Rural Students in High Enrollment, Gateway STEM Courses

重新构想评分以支持非传统和农村学生的高入学率、入门 STEM 课程

• 批准号: 2222289
• 负责人: Tara Slominski
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: North Dakota State University Fargo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2222289&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Reimagining; Grading; Support; Nontraditional; Rural

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Common classroom practices, such as grading and the use of grades to assess knowledge and performance, may have unintended consequences on students who invariably derive an awareness of their own academic abilities from the results of those grading structures. In fact, these traditional practices may inadvertently create and promote inequities among different student groups, particularly in large enrollment courses, but these issues have largely been unexplored. This postdoctoral research fellowship project seeks to examine the impact of grading practices on self-concept and STEM persistence with a special focus on rural and nontraditional students. The project has promise to produce new insights about equitable classroom and grading practices for rural and nontraditional students that are compatible with the constraints of high enrollment gateway courses. In addition to conducting the research project, the investigator will build STEM education research capacity in quantitative methods and approaches through an explicit professional development plan.This project's research hypothesis is that nontraditional and rural students are especially vulnerable to the limitations of traditional grading when used in high enrollment, gateway STEM courses. The investigator will use a mixed-methods, community-based participatory research approach with three objectives. First is to explore the relationship between grading structures and nontraditional and rural students’ self-concept and intentions to persist in high enrollment, gateway STEM courses. Second is to characterize how aspects of traditional and alternative grading schemes influence nontraditional and rural students’ academic self-concept and intentions to persist in STEM. Third is to develop empirically supported approaches of equitable grading strategies that are conducive to high enrollment STEM classrooms and are particularly supportive for rural students and students that identify as nontraditional. The findings could provide faculty with practical assessment and grading approaches to address the systemic inequitable practices associated with grading and create more equitable learning environments for students broadly.The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。常见的课堂做法，如评分和使用评分来评估知识和表现，可能会对学生产生意想不到的后果，他们总是从这些评分结构的结果中了解自己的学术能力。事实上，这些传统做法可能会无意中造成和促进不同学生群体之间的不平等，特别是在招生人数较多的课程中，但这些问题在很大程度上还没有被探索过。这一博士后研究奖学金项目旨在考察评分做法对自我概念和STEM坚持的影响，特别关注农村和非传统学生。该项目承诺为农村和非传统学生提供关于公平课堂和评分做法的新见解，这些做法符合高入学率门户课程的限制。除了进行研究项目外，调查者还将通过明确的专业发展计划，以量化的方法和途径建设STEM教育研究能力。该项目的研究假设是，非传统和农村学生在高入学率、门户STEM课程中使用时，特别容易受到传统评分的限制。调查员将使用混合方法，以社区为基础的参与性研究方法，有三个目标。一是探讨年级结构与非传统和农村学生的自我概念和坚持高招生、门户STEM课程的意图之间的关系。第二，刻画传统和另类评分制度如何影响非传统和农村学生的学业自我概念和坚持STEM的意图。第三是制定有经验支持的公平评分战略方法，这些方法有利于高入学率的STEM课堂，特别是支持农村学生和认为非传统的学生。这些发现可以为教师提供实用的评估和评级方法，以解决与评级相关的系统性不公平做法，并为学生创造更公平的学习环境。该项目响应STEM教育博士后研究奖学金(STEM Ed PRF)计划，该计划旨在增强STEM、STEM教育、教育和相关学科的新近博士的研究知识、技能和实践，以推进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，以促进该领域知识的进步。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。