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.

自我概念是人们关于他们是谁、他们如何行为以及他们有潜力成为谁的一系列想法。学生的自我概念对他们在高等教育中的学业成功和坚持性有很大的影响。本项目旨在开发一个测量STEM中神经发散型学生自我概念的工具，并探讨其与学业动机和对STEM的认同感之间的关系。尽管越来越多的本科生是神经分化的学生，但神经分化的学生在STEM中的比例仍然很低，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，在他们发展积极的自我概念和参与自我决定的行为时，提供法律要求的住宿以外的方式。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。这项研究还试图阐明STEM系(与校园残疾资源中心/残疾服务办公室合作)可以如何为其神经分化的学生培养一种不仅注重无障碍，而且注重包容和平等的文化。发展这种文化是支持神经分化学生在STEM中坚持的一种手段。这个项目还将涉及首席调查员的专业发展和指导，建设首席调查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，以支持他们在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调查员在现有的自我概念和残疾模型理论框架内开发的项目库，使用现有的神经分歧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中的成员进行评估。然后，通过认知访谈对测量进行检验，然后通过因子分析进行基于内部结构的大规模检验和验证。最后，将与包括残疾资源中心工作人员、STEM教职员工/管理人员和神经分歧学生在内的焦点小组一起检查该措施的评估结果。数据将从一系列机构类型的神经分化本科生中收集。作为参与者和更广泛社区的潜在利益，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研究生和专业人员举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，旨在帮助学生了解他们可能的自我。对于这项个人研究人员发展补助金，首席研究人员将由心理测量学专家、高等教育中的神经分歧学生和STEM中的残疾学生指导，同时参加关于量表开发和结构方程建模的专业发展研讨会。首席调查员还将与一个咨询委员会合作，该委员会拥有与该项目有关的更广泛的专业知识。通过这种指导，首席研究人员将在他们以前的统计分析培训和最近对神经分化的STEM本科生的经验和学习的研究的基础上，为这一学生群体发展关于规模发展的核心知识。该项目得到了NSF的STEM教育研究EDU核心研究能力建设计划(ECR：BCSER)的支持，该计划旨在建设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优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。