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

博士后奖学金：STEMEdIPRF：研究教师对系统性障碍和成长心态的认识如何影响学生的归属感、自我效能和 STEM 成功

• 批准号: 2327319
• 负责人: Tiani Perkins
• 金额: $ 19.21万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-05-01 至 2026-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2327319&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Postdoctoral; Fellowship; STEMEdIPRF; Examining; how

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.

传统的STEM大学课程是基于文化规范，不考虑学生的身份，在STEM历史上代表性不足的经验。在实践中，这些规范可能会给代表性不足的学生在STEM教育过程中的成功带来隐藏的挑战。该项目旨在通过研究（a）他们对智能灵活性的态度（即，成长心态）和（B）他们对STEM系统性障碍的认识。结合起来，这些态度可能会影响教师从事文化相关的教学实践和学生行为的意义。这项研究将在推进有关STEM学习和学习环境的知识，增加课堂的多样性，公平性和包容性方面具有重要意义。该项目还具有直接研究学生的经验，因为他们涉及到STEM教师的态度，扩大参与STEM领域的影响。总体而言，本研究有助于STEM教师的专业发展，并有助于解决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教育系统性障碍的认识和成长心态信念如何影响本科生在STEM教育中的成功。现有的定量研究还没有确定这些教师的态度，他们与文化相关的教学方法的参与，以及由此产生的影响STEM学生的结果的独立贡献。该项目的研究结果可以提供初步支持，即分析STEM教师态度的多个维度对于解决代表性不足的学生成功的现有挑战至关重要。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术上挣扎的代表性不足的学生的因果归因。2)教师和学生从介绍STEM大学课程招聘，以完成在学期开始时的调查（时间1），学生完成在学期结束时的后续调查（时间2）。调查结果旨在研究教师的态度是否会影响学生的归属感，自我效能感和对未来STEM成功的期望。3)一个在线实验设计，以检查是否实验操纵一个假设的教师的态度将影响代表性不足和传统的本科生的STEM兴趣，自我效能和课程的成功。在每项研究中还将进行额外的分析，以探索教师和学生种族，性别，社会阶层和性取向的差异。这项研究可能对STEM教育产生重要影响，通过阐明这些态度对教师对学业困难学生的因果归因的影响;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。（干艾德PRF）计划，旨在提高研究知识，技能，并在干，干教育，教育，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得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的支持。