Collaborative Research: Maximizing Mentor Effectiveness In Increasing Student Interest And Success In STEM: An Empirical Approach Employing Robotics Education

这一合作项目正在进行一项研究，利用机器人教育计划，为STEM中任职人数不足和非任职人数不足的学生描述辅导的有效组成部分。要了解STEM对成功的期望和追求STEM职业的兴趣，必须了解人们在决定学习哪些领域和追求什么职业时做出的与成就相关的选择。如果要最大限度地利用辅导来提高学生从事STEM职业的兴趣，就必须确定哪种类型的辅导在提高STEM自我效能感和与成就相关的选择方面最有效。这项建议解决了以下研究问题：“一般的‘最佳实践’辅导方法是否有效，或者是否需要一种特定的自我效能方法？这两种方法的结合是否最优？此外，学生种族是否缓和了辅导方法的影响？”48个小组，约480名男性和女性参与者代表中学班级，这些班级以前没有参加过机器人或类似的STEM活动。团队导师分为接受最佳实践导师培训、自我效能感导师培训、组合导师培训和不接受导师培训的团队导师(控制组)。所有团队都参加由KISS实用机器人研究所组织的Botball地区性机器人比赛。本研究采用混合析因设计，考察了三种类型的导师培训对STEM自我效能感和对成功和/或STEM成就相关选择的期望的影响。研究结果以及导师的反馈将被用于开发导师培训包，该包可用于所有机器人项目，并可推广到其他类似的STEM活动。

This collaborative project is conducting a research study to delineate the effective components of mentoring for underrepresented and non-underrepresented students in STEM, utilizing a robotics educational program. To understand STEM expectations of success and interests in pursuing STEM careers, it is imperative to understand the achievement-related choices people make when deciding what areas to study and what careers to pursue. If mentoring is to be used to its fullest capacity in increasing students' interest in pursuing STEM careers, it is imperative to delineate what type of mentoring is most effective in increasing STEM self-efficacy and achievement-related choices. This proposal is addressing the following research questions: "Can a general 'best practices' mentoring approach be effective or is a specific self-efficacy approach needed? Is a combination of the two approaches optimal? In addition, does student ethnicity moderate the impact of the mentoring approaches?" Forty-eight teams of approximately 480 male and female participants represent middle school classes that have not previously participated in robotics or a similar STEM activity. Team mentors are divided into those receiving best-practices mentor training, self-efficacy mentor training, a combination, and no mentor training (control group). All teams participate in a Botball regional robotics competition organized by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics. Employing a mixed factorial design, the study examines three types of mentor training for their impact on STEM self-efficacy and expectations of success and/or STEM achievement-related choices. The results along with the feedback from mentors will be used to develop a mentor-training package that could be used in all robotics programs and be generalized to other similar STEM activities.