Self-Concept of Neurodivergent Undergraduate Students in STEM

自我概念是人们对自己是谁、自己如何行为以及自己有潜力成为谁所持有的一套想法。学生的自我概念对他们的学业成功和高等教育的持续性有很大的影响。本研究旨在开发一种测量自我概念的工具，以测量STEM神经发散学生的自我概念，并研究其与学习动机和STEM认同的关系。尽管有越来越多的本科生是神经发散型的，但神经发散型的学生在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学生，而不仅仅是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。该项目计划通过提供对神经分歧STEM本科生自我概念的更深入理解来支持这一努力。该研究还旨在阐明STEM部门（与校园残疾资源中心/残疾人服务办公室合作）可以培养的方式，不仅是以可访问性为中心，而且是以包容性和公平为中心的文化。发展这种文化是支持神经分歧学生在STEM中坚持的一种手段。该项目还将涉及主要研究者的专业发展和指导，培养主要研究者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，以支持他们的身份发展和STEM学习。正在开发的自我概念量表将基于主要研究者在现有的自我概念理论框架内开发的项目库。残疾的概念和模型，使用现有的定性数据集的神经分歧STEM学生对残疾的看法。项目将首先由专家小组和研究人群的成员进行评估。然后，该措施将通过认知访谈进行测试，然后通过因素分析进行大规模的测试和验证的内部结构的基础上。最后，该措施将与包括残疾资源中心工作人员，STEM教师/管理人员和neurodivergent学生在内的焦点小组一起检查评估的后果。数据将从不同类型机构的神经分歧大学生中收集。作为参与者和更广泛社区的潜在利益，在整个项目时间轴中，研究团队将寻求通过与神经分歧STEM研究生和专业人员的在线讨论小组活动，吸引神经分歧本科生和残疾资源中心工作人员，以帮助学生对他们可能的自我的愿景做出贡献。对于这项个人研究者发展补助金，主要研究者将由心理测量学专家，高等教育中的neurodivergent学生和STEM中的残疾学生进行指导，同时参与有关规模开发和结构方程建模的专业发展研讨会。首席研究员还将与具有与该项目相关的更广泛专业知识的咨询委员会合作。通过这种指导，主要研究者将建立在他们以前的统计分析培训和他们最近的研究neurodivergent STEM本科生的经验和学习，为这个学生群体发展规模发展的核心知识。 该项目得到了NSF的EDU Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research（ECR：BCSER）项目的支持，该项目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，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。

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.