Self-Concept of Neurodivergent Undergraduate Students in STEM

STEM神经分歧本科生的自我概念

• 批准号: 2321186
• 负责人: Stephen Podowitz-Thomas
• 金额: $ 34.95万
• 依托单位: Thomas Jefferson University
• 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: 2023-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2321186&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Self; Concept; Neurodivergent; Undergraduate; Students

Self-concept is the set of ideas that people hold about who they are, how they behave, and who they have the potential to become. The self-concept of students has a strong impact on their academic success and persistence in higher education. This project aims to develop a tool to measure self-concept as a neurodivergent student in STEM and investigate its relationship to academic motivation and identification with STEM. Although a significant and growing number of undergraduates are neurodivergent, neurodivergent students continue to be underrepresented in STEM and disproportionately leave STEM disciplines. Only recently has national attention begun to shift towards supporting neurodivergent students in ways that go beyond providing legally-required accommodations as they develop positive self-concepts and engage in self-determined behaviors. This project plans to support that effort by providing a deeper understanding of the self-concept of neurodivergent STEM undergraduates. The research seeks also to illuminate ways in which STEM departments (partnering with campus disability resource centers / disability services offices) may cultivate, not only an accessibility-focused, but inclusion- and equity-focused culture for their neurodivergent students. Developing this culture is one means of supporting the persistence of neurodivergent students in STEM. This project will also involve the professional development and mentorship of the principal investigator, building the capacity of the principal investigator to conduct mixed methods education research focused on partnering with neurodivergent students to support their identity development and learning in STEM.The self-concept scale under development will be based on an item pool developed by the principal investigator within existing theoretical frameworks of self-concept and models of disability, using an existing qualitative dataset of neurodivergent STEM students’ perspectives on disability. Items will first be evaluated by panels of experts and members from the study population. Then, the measure will be tested through cognitive interviews, followed by large-scale testing and validation based on internal structure through factor analysis. Finally, the measure will be examined for consequences of assessment with focus groups comprising disability resource center staff, STEM faculty/administrators, and neurodivergent students. Data will be collected from neurodivergent undergraduates at a range of institution types. As a potential benefit to participants and the broader community, throughout the project timeline, the research team will seek to engage neurodivergent undergraduate students and disability resource center staff through online discussion panel events with neurodivergent STEM graduate students and professionals meant to help contribute to students’ visions of their possible selves. For this individual investigator development grant, the principal investigator will be mentored by experts in psychometrics, neurodivergent students in higher education, and disabled students in STEM, while engaging in professional development workshops on scale development and structural equation modeling. The principal investigator will also work with an advisory board with a broader range of expertise related to the project. Through this mentorship, the principal investigator will build on their previous training in statistical analysis and their recent research on the experiences and learning of neurodivergent STEM undergraduates to develop core knowledge on scale development for this student population. The project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.

自我概念是人们对自己是谁、如何行为以及有潜力成为谁的一系列想法。学生的自我概念对其学业成功和对高等教育的坚持有很大影响。该项目旨在开发一种工具来衡量 STEM 神经分化学生的自我概念，并调查其与学术动机和对 STEM 认同的关系。尽管神经分歧型本科生数量显着且不断增加，但神经分歧型学生在 STEM 中的代表性仍然不足，并且不成比例地离开 STEM 学科。直到最近，全国的注意力才开始转向支持神经分歧的学生，而不仅仅是提供法律要求的便利，帮助他们发展积极的自我概念并参与自我决定的行为。该项目计划通过更深入地了解神经分化的 STEM 本科生的自我概念来支持这一努力。该研究还试图阐明 STEM 部门（与校园残疾资源中心/残疾服务办公室合作）可以如何为神经分化的学生培养一种不仅以无障碍为中心，而且以包容和公平为中心的文化。发展这种文化是支持神经分歧学生坚持 STEM 的一种方式。该项目还将涉及首席研究员的专业发展和指导，培养首席研究员进行混合方法教育研究的能力，重点是与神经分歧的学生合作，支持他们在 STEM 中的身份发展和学习。正在开发的自我概念量表将基于首席研究员在现有自我概念和残疾模型的理论框架内开发的项目库，使用神经分歧 STEM 学生的现有定性数据集 对残疾的看法。项目将首先由专家小组和研究人群成员进行评估。然后，将通过认知访谈来测试该措施，然后通过因子分析基于内部结构进行大规模测试和验证。最后，将由由残疾资源中心工作人员、STEM 教职人员/管理人员和神经分歧学生组成的焦点小组来审查该措施的评估结果。数据将从各种类型机构的神经分歧本科生中收集。作为对参与者和更广泛社区的潜在好处，在整个项目时间表中，研究团队将寻求通过与神经分歧的 STEM 研究生和专业人士进行在线讨论小组活动，吸引神经分歧的本科生和残疾资源中心工作人员参与，旨在帮助学生实现对可能的自我的愿景。对于这项个人研究者发展资助，首席研究员将接受心理测量学专家、高等教育中的神经分歧学生和 STEM 中的残疾学生的指导，同时参加有关量表开发和结构方程建模的专业发展研讨会。首席研究员还将与拥有与该项目相关的更广泛专业知识的咨询委员会合作。通过这次指导，首席研究员将在他们之前的统计分析培训和最近对神经分歧 STEM 本科生的经验和学习的研究的基础上，为该学生群体开发有关规模发展的核心知识。 该项目得到 NSF 的 STEM 教育研究 EDU 核心研究能力建设 (ECR: BCSER) 计划的支持，该计划旨在培养研究人员开展高质量 STEM 教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。