Conference: Eliminating the Mathematics Barrier for All Students: Bringing Innovation to Scale in Higher Education Mathematics

本项目旨在通过开发可扩展本科数学入门课程教学改革的方法来服务于国家利益，以扩大旨在使学生在本科数学方面取得成功的努力，并增加美国院校中代表各种人才的学生对STEM的参与。在过去的十年中，出现了一些重大的创新来解决本科数学中的特殊挑战，这些创新有助于帮助学生培养在STEM中取得成功所需的基本数学能力。与此同时，在研究密集型机构中，以教学为重点的教师人数有所增加，他们具有独特的地位，可以影响数学入门课程。为了帮助国家满足其STEM劳动力需求，本次会议将探讨这些以教学为重点的教师如何利用有效的创新来创建一个全国可扩展的结构，以改善学生的体验，并在数学入门课程中取得成功。解决大学毕业和高等教育公平问题的本科数学教育改革对于满足国家STEM劳动力和国家安全需求至关重要。在改进入门级数学课程方面有许多创新努力，许多项目和机构创建、试点并偶尔复制了克服特殊挑战的有效改革努力，如改革教学方法或关注性别平等的需要。这次会议旨在解决系统性改革的结构性障碍，这些障碍阻碍了许多以研究为基础的创新的大规模实施。目前，初级数学课程的教学和协调工作大多分配给以教学为中心的教师，该项目希望利用当前的实践，作为改革新途径的机会。因此，此次会议将汇集40多个利益相关者，包括以教学为重点的教师，共同起草一份概念文件，阐述社区的需求，以制定新的解决方案，以解决学生在数学入门课程中取得成功的公认障碍，并了解如何扩大基于研究的努力和创新，这些努力和创新已显示出提高学生在这些课程中取得成功的希望。此外，这次会议将起草改革结构，并将奠定基础，重点是在研究型大学建立以教学为中心的数学教师网络社区，为未来的努力奠定基础，以加速采用基于研究的解决方案，以应对数学入门课程的挑战。NSF IUSE: EDU项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过机构和社区转型轨道，该计划支持高等教育机构和学科社区的STEM教育转型和改善。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing ways that undergraduate instructional reform in introductory mathematics courses could be scaled to expand efforts aimed at student success in undergraduate mathematics and increase STEM participation for students that represent the full spectrum of diverse talent at US institutions. Over the past decade, several significant innovations have emerged to address particular challenges in undergraduate mathematics, which contribute to helping students develop the basic mathematics proficiency they need to be successful in STEM. Concurrently, there has been a rise of teaching-focused faculty at research-intensive institutions who are uniquely positioned to influence introductory mathematics coursework. With a goal to help the nation meet its STEM workforce needs, this convening will explore how these teaching-focused faculty can leverage effective innovations to create a nationally scalable structure for improving student experiences and success in introductory mathematics courses.Reforms in undergraduate mathematics education that address college completion and equity in higher education are essential to meeting the nation’s STEM workforce and national security needs. There are many innovative efforts addressing the improvement of entry-level mathematics courses, and numerous projects and institutions have created, piloted, and occasionally replicated effective reform efforts that overcame particular challenges, like the need to reform pedagogy or attend to gender equity. This convening aims to address structural barriers to systemic reform that prevent implementation of many of these research-backed innovations at scale. The project aspires to leverage current practices, that distribute much of the entry-level mathematics course teaching and coordination to teaching-focused faculty, as an opportunity for new pathways to reform. As such, the convening will bring together more than 40 stakeholders, including teaching-focused faculty, to produce a concept paper articulating the needs of the community to develop new solutions to recognized obstacles for student success in introductory mathematics courses and to understand ways in which to scale research-based efforts and innovations that have shown promise in increasing student success in these courses. In addition, the convening will draft structures for change and will lay the groundwork, centered on building networked communities of teaching-focused mathematics faculty at research-intensive universities, for future efforts that could accelerate the uptake of research-based solutions to meet the challenges of introductory mathematics courses. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.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.