Self-Concept of Neurodivergent Undergraduate Students in STEM

自我概念是人们对自己是谁、自己的行为方式以及自己有潜力成为什么样的人的一系列想法。学生的自我概念对他们的学业成功和在高等教育中的坚持有很大的影响。本项目旨在开发一种测量神经发散性STEM学生自我概念的工具，并探讨其与STEM学习动机和认同的关系。尽管越来越多的本科生具有神经发散性，但神经发散性学生在STEM领域的代表性仍然不足，并且不成比例地离开了STEM学科。直到最近，全国的注意力才开始转向支持神经分化学生，而不仅仅是提供法律要求的便利，因为他们发展了积极的自我概念，并从事自主行为。该项目计划通过提供对神经发散性STEM本科生自我概念的更深入理解来支持这一努力。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）如何为神经分化的学生培养不仅以可访问性为中心，而且以包容和公平为中心的文化。培养这种文化是支持神经发散学生坚持STEM学习的一种手段。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，重点是与神经分化学生合作，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由首席研究员在现有的自我概念理论框架和残疾模型中开发的项目库，使用现有的神经分化STEM学生对残疾的看法的定性数据集。项目将首先由专家小组和研究人群的成员进行评估。然后，通过认知访谈对测度进行检验，然后通过因子分析对基于内部结构的大规模检验和验证。最后，该措施将与由残疾资源中心工作人员、STEM教师/管理人员和神经发散性学生组成的焦点小组一起审查评估的后果。数据将从不同机构类型的神经分化本科生中收集。作为参与者和更广泛的社区的潜在利益，在整个项目时间表中，研究团队将通过与神经发散性STEM研究生和专业人士的在线讨论小组活动，寻求神经发散性本科生和残疾资源中心工作人员的参与，旨在帮助学生对他们可能的自我做出贡献。对于这项个人研究者发展资助，首席研究者将由心理测量学专家、高等教育中的神经发散学生和STEM中的残疾学生进行指导，同时参加有关规模发展和结构方程建模的专业发展研讨会。首席研究员还将与具有与该项目有关的更广泛专业知识的顾问委员会合作。通过这项指导，首席研究员将基于他们之前在统计分析方面的培训，以及他们最近对神经发散性STEM本科生的经验和学习的研究，为这一学生群体开发规模开发的核心知识。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会EDU STEM教育研究核心研究能力建设（ECR: BCSER）项目的支持，该项目旨在培养研究者开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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。

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.