How are students' academic and affective success impacted by faculty training in Universal Design for Learning?

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With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to improve student success in undergraduate science courses at two HSIs. Improving the success of all students, particularly those from traditionally marginalized backgrounds, is critical to increasing diversity in the sciences. To address this, the project will train STEM faculty in the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which are known to support student learning. A Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will train instructors to design course activities using UDL Principles and then use surveys to measure the extent to which they are used in their teaching practice. These will be correlated with implementation and student outcomes, including a) academic success, b) interest in the sciences, and c) a sense of belonging in introductory science courses. Academic data will be collected from courses faculty teach before, during, and after their participation in the FLC, for up to three years. Students' interest and sense of belonging will be measured with surveys. Differences in the outcomes of different demographic groups to determine the efficacy and equity of UDL Principles will be identified. The FLC model for learning about and implementing UDL is expected to improve student outcomes in science courses, which can be adopted at other institutions in the future.The goal of this pilot project is to offer multiple cohorts of a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) to train and guide faculty to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles in introductory science and math courses at two HSIs. The research question is, “How are students’ academic and affective success impacted by faculty use of Universal Design for Learning Principles in introductory science and math courses?” Measurement of the extent to which faculty and students report that faculty have implemented UDL principles will be correlated to student success in their courses before, during and after the FLC. Student success will be determined with academic measures (course DFW rates) and affective measures using surveys (student interest in STEM, sense of belonging, and value of UDL-based activities). A determination of the extent to which UDL Principles support equity in courses by identifying any differences in student outcomes (academic and affect) among different demographic groups will be conducted. It is expected that integration of UDL Principles will benefit a vast majority of students academically, that courses will become more equitable (as evidenced by decreased equity gaps), and that students, particularly those from traditionally minoritized backgrounds, will demonstrate increased affective gains. The investigation of the implementation of evidence-based professional development is particularly important, given declining enrollments, high DFW rates and equity gaps, and the current lack of culturally responsive pedagogical practices in STEM courses. Dissemination of the results of this project can be used to inspire broader adaptation of the UDL-FLC model at other institutions. This will inform future STEM faculty professional and potentially non-STEM faculty of development activities. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.