Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Examining how faculty awareness of systemic barriers and growth mindset influences students' belonging, self-efficacy, and success in STEM

传统的STEM大学课程是基于文化规范，没有考虑到历史上在STEM中代表性不足的学生的经历。在实践中，这些规范可能会给代表性不足的学生在STEM教育过程中取得成功带来潜在的挑战。该项目旨在通过研究(a)大学教师对智力灵活性的态度（即成长心态）和(b)他们对STEM系统障碍的认识，将大学教师视为STEM教育变革的推动者。综合起来，这些态度会影响教师从事与文化相关的教学实践和理解学生行为的方式。这项研究将对推进STEM学习和学习环境的知识具有重要意义，从而增加课堂的多样性、公平性和包容性。该项目还通过直接研究与STEM教师态度相关的学生经验，对扩大STEM领域的参与产生影响。总的来说，这项研究有助于STEM教师的专业发展，并有助于满足日益多样化的学生群体的需求。本研究旨在探讨STEM教师对STEM教育中系统性障碍的认识和成长心态信念如何影响本科生在STEM领域的成功。现有的定量研究尚未确定这些教师态度对他们参与与文化相关的教学方法的独立贡献，以及由此产生的对STEM学生成果的影响。该项目的研究结果可以提供初步支持，即对STEM教师态度的多个维度进行分析对于解决现有挑战至关重要，这些挑战对代表性不足的学生的成功至关重要。该项目分为三个阶段：1)STEM教师完成一项在线实验调查，以检查他们对系统性偏见和成长心态的认识是否会影响他们对学业上挣扎的代表性不足的学生的因果归因。2)从STEM大学入门课程中招募教师和学生，在学期开始时（时间1）完成调查，学生在学期结束时（时间2）完成后续调查。研究结果旨在研究教师的态度是否会影响学生的归属感、自我效能感以及对未来STEM成功的期望。3)一项在线实验设计，旨在检验对假设教员态度的实验操纵是否会影响代表性不足和传统本科生的STEM兴趣、自我效能感和课程成功。在每项研究中，还将进行额外的分析，以探索教师和学生的种族、性别、社会阶层和性取向的差异。本研究通过阐明这些态度对教师对学习困难学生的因果归因的影响，可能对STEM教育具有重要意义；对学生课堂体验的直接影响；以及学生对STEM的态度。总的来说，这项研究旨在通过强调个人和系统因素对本科生成功的关键作用来改变STEM教育研究。该项目由STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划资助，旨在提高STEM， STEM教育，教育和相关学科的近期博士的研究知识，技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而推进该领域的知识。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。

Traditional STEM college programs are based on cultural norms that do not account for the experiences of students with identities that are historically underrepresented in STEM. In practice, these norms may create hidden challenges to underrepresented students’ success over the course of their STEM education. This project is designed to look at college instructors as agents for change in STEM education by studying (a) their attitudes about the flexible nature of intelligence (i.e., growth mindset) and (b) their awareness of systemic barriers in STEM. Combined, these attitudes could influence the ways instructors engage in culturally relevant teaching practices and make meaning of student behaviors. This research will be of significance in advancing knowledge about STEM learning and learning environments that increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in classrooms. This project also has implications for broadening participation in STEM fields by directly studying students’ experiences as they relate to STEM instructor’s attitudes. Overall, this research could contribute to STEM instructor’s professional development and help to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.This study is designed to examine how STEM faculty’s awareness of systemic barriers in STEM education and growth mindset beliefs influence undergraduate students’ success in STEM. Existing quantitative research has not identified the independent contributions of these faculty attitudes for their engagement with culturally relevant teaching pedagogies, and the resulting implications for STEM students’ outcomes. Findings from this project could provide preliminary support that analysis of multiple dimensions of STEM faculty’s attitudes is crucial for addressing existing challenges to underrepresented student success. This project has three phases: 1) STEM faculty complete an online experimental survey to examine whether their awareness of systemic bias and growth mindset influences their causal attributions for an academically struggling underrepresented student. 2) Faculty and student recruitment from introductory STEM college courses to complete a survey at the beginning of the academic semester (Time 1), and students complete a follow-up survey at the end of the academic semester (Time 2). Findings are designed to examine whether faculty’s attitudes influence students’ belonging, self-efficacy, and expectations for future STEM success. 3) An online experimental design to examine whether an experimental manipulation of a hypothetical faculty member’s attitudes will influence underrepresented and traditional undergraduate students’ STEM interest, self-efficacy, and course success. Additional analysis will also be conducted in each study to explore differences by faculty and student race, gender, social class, and sexuality. This research could have important implications for STEM education by illuminating the influence of these attitudes for faculty’s causal attributions of academically struggling students; the direct implications for students’ classroom experiences; and students’ resulting attitudes about STEM. Overall, this research is designed to transform STEM education research by highlighting the critical roles of both individual and systemic factors for undergraduate student success.This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.