EAGER: Understanding and Improving Collegiate Persistence and STEM Opportunities for Developmental Mathematics Students

在全国范围内，大约一半的进入大学的学生被安排参加发展数学课程，这些课程侧重于基础算术和代数预科主题。此外，发展数学课程的学分通常不计入大学毕业学时。一些攻读发展数学专业的本科生对在STEM工作很感兴趣，但因为他们必须从发展课程层面开始他们的学位轨迹，所以他们感到气馁。与此同时，科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域对强大劳动力的持续需求，使得不能失去这么多对STEM感兴趣的大学学生是很重要的。2015年秋季，西弗吉尼亚大学(WVU)的发展数学课程将首次获得学分，这将为研究这一变化对学生在该课程中的成功和后续STEM课程的坚持性的影响提供一个特殊的机会。在西弗吉尼亚大学目前跨STEM学科开展的工作基础上，基于对学科中自我认同的早期研究，本项目将解决以下问题：(1)发展数学专业的学生以何种方式自我认同为STEM学习者？(2)有意学习STEM的发展数学学生对STEM学位的坚持程度如何？(3)转向学分版本的发展数学是否提高了学生的成功率？(4)发展数学中哪些因素有助于(I)坚持STEM专业和(Ii)自我认同为STEM学习者？(5)同伴导师的引入将如何影响发展中学生的学习收益？利用调查和机构数据，项目团队将跟踪学生在学位课程的头两年，以调查发展数学学生何时以及为什么退出STEM专业，并从这个补救的起点确定与学生在STEM坚持的相关因素。

Nationally, approximately half of all students entering college are placed into developmental mathematics courses, which focus on basic arithmetic and pre-algebra topics. In addition, often, the credit hours for developmental mathematics courses do not count toward college graduation hours. Some undergraduates who place into developmental mathematics are interested in pursuing a career in STEM, but get discouraged because they had to start their degree trajectory at the developmental course level. At the same time, the ongoing need for a strong workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) makes it important not to lose so many students who started college with an interest in STEM. In Fall 2015, for the first time, the developmental mathematics course at West Virginia University (WVU) will carry credit-bearing weight, offering a special opportunity to study the impact of this change on student success in the course and persistence in subsequent STEM courses.Building on current work being conducted at WVU across STEM disciplines based on early studies of self-identity situated in disciplines, this project will address the following questions: (1) In what ways do students in developmental mathematics self-identify as STEM learners? (2) At what rate do STEM-intending developmental mathematics students persist in pursuit of a STEM degree? (3) Does a shift to a credit-bearing version of developmental mathematics improve student success rates? (4) What are the factors in developmental mathematics that contribute to (i) persistence as a STEM major and (ii) self identification as STEM learners? (5) How will the introduction of peer mentors affect the learning gains of developmental students? Using survey and institutional data, the project team will track students through their first two years of their degree programs to investigate when and why developmental mathematics students switch out of STEM majors, as well as to identify factors related to student persistence in STEM from this remedial starting point.