Fostering Communities of Practice Through Research and Peer Mentoring

该项目旨在为西班牙裔服务机构的STEM教育开发一个国家模式，吸引大学社区的所有成员。这项工作的核心是发展一个“学者学院”，这是一个以小组为基础的项目，旨在通过同伴指导、本科生研究机会和额外支持来支持本科生。该学院旨在提高本科生的成功率，特别是对西班牙裔学生。该项目将解决一些有据可查的挑战，本科生的成功，包括西班牙裔STEM学生坚持在STEM比他们的非西班牙裔同龄人低的速度。实践社区（CoP）--有共同关注点并一起工作和学习的群体--将在学生、教师和管理人员中发展，以确保学生的长期保留，并通过维持最佳实践来实现机构转型。通过这个项目，基恩将增加教师从事研究与本科生的数量，谁也在文化上响应辅导培训。这些做法旨在提高学生的保留率，就业准备，并提高参与者的归属感。这个学者学院的关键将是作为项目活动的一部分培养的三个COP。为了促进这些社区，活动将根据已经在基恩两个学术单位试点的小型项目实施。第一个这样的活动是建立一个学生学者的社区，并满足学生在关键消耗点的需求，通过提供一个STEM专业的具体版本的“过渡到基恩”第一年的研讨会。具有高D，F和退出（DFW）率的第一年和第二年课程将有针对性地使用同伴指导和同伴领导的团队学习进行补充指导。其次，学生将参加由教师领导的小型研究团队，使用西班牙裔服务机构计算联盟（CAHSI）亲和力研究小组模型，多年来取得进展，并由高年级学生指导。第三项活动涉及实施CAHSI和基恩教学中心的签名实践，以提供各种教师专业发展经验，旨在加强咨询和教师教学法。第四个也是最后一个活动是组建一个由教师和管理人员组成的团队，他们将参与机构转型CoP，以帮助项目迭代地改进和制度化关键项目组件。项目研究将产生新的知识，了解项目主要干预措施的有效性，以及哪些机制支持具体做法的持续和制度化。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建立HSI的能力。实现这些目标，鉴于HSIs的多样性和背景，需要创新的方法，激励机构和社区转型，促进基础研究（i）参与学生学习，（ii）关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及（iii）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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 develop a national model for STEM education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions that engages all members of the university community. Central to this effort is the development of a “Scholars Academy,” a cohort-based program to support undergraduate students with peer mentoring, undergraduate research opportunities, and additional support. The academy is designed to improve undergraduate success, particularly for Hispanic students. The project will address a number of well documented challenges to undergraduate student success, including the fact that Hispanic STEM students persist in STEM at a lower rate than their non-Hispanic peers. Communities of Practice (CoPs) – groups of people who share a common concern and work and learn together – will be developed among students, faculty, and administrators to ensure longer term retention of students and create institutional transformation by sustaining best practices. Through this project, Kean will increase the number of faculty engaging in research with undergraduates, and who are also trained in culturally responsive mentoring. These practices are intended to increase student retention, job readiness, and improve participants' sense of belonging.Key to this Scholars Academy will be three CoPs fostered as part of the project activities. To foster these communities, activities will be implemented based on smaller programs already piloted in two academic units at Kean. The first such activity is to build a community of student scholars, and meet the needs of students during critical attrition points, by offering a STEM major-specific version of the "Transition to Kean” first-year seminar. First- and second-year courses with high D, F, and withdrawal (DFW) rates will be targeted for supplemental instruction using peer-mentoring and peer-led team learning. Secondly, students will engage in small faculty-led research teams using the Computing Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institutions’ (CAHSI) Affinity Research Group model, with progress over multiple years and mentoring by senior-level students. A third activity involves implementing signature practices from CAHSI and Kean’s Center for Teaching and Learning to provide a variety of faculty professional development experiences aimed at enhancing advising and faculty pedagogy. A fourth and final activity is to form a team of faculty and administrators who will participate in an institutional transformation CoP that will help the project iteratively improve and institutionalize key project components. Project research will generate new knowledge on the effectiveness of the project's main interventions and what mechanisms supported the persistence and institutionalization of specific practices. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs that are supported by this program.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.