Graduating the Next Generation of Engineering Technology Professionals by Promoting Competence, Group Identity, and Autonomy

该项目将通过支持罗切斯特理工学院(RIT)有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。该项目为期5年，将为36名正在攻读土木工程、计算机、电气、机电、机械、机器人和制造工程技术学士学位的本科生提供奖学金。学生在RIT的前五个学期将获得奖学金支持。为了增加留校率，该项目将使用教师和同行导师，创建个性化的学者支持网络，并通过教师发展改善教学，旨在为所有学生培养一个更友好的环境。由于参加RIT工程技术项目的非裔美国人、拉丁美洲人和美洲原住民(AALANA)、第一代学生和聋人/重听学生的比例超过了全国水平，该项目的更广泛影响在于它增加了工程劳动力的多样性。该项目还有可能极大地促进对解决社会和环境因素的最佳实践的理解，这些因素在历史上导致工程技术课程中代表性不足的学生的留存率较低。因此，它支持NSF的一个关键战略目标，即培养一支更有能力和多样化的STEM劳动力。该项目的指导原则是通过实施支持网络和教学改革来提高能力，发展联系(或群体认同感)，并培养工程技术专业学生的自主性。根据自我决定理论(SDT)的假设，当这三种基本心理需求--能力、关联性和自主性--得到满足时，个体就会有内在的动机来支持自己的成长和幸福。这个项目很重要，因为它将有助于填补文献中关于以证据为基础的战略的空白，以改善保留代表性不足的群体，特别是在工程技术领域。这个项目将调查三个旨在解决社会和环境因素的特定策略是否真的能提高学者的积极性和坚持不懈。首先是程序性实施，使用SDT框架，以满足自主性、能力和关联性的基本心理需求。其次是利用教师和同伴导师以及个性化的学者支持网络。第三是采用基于证据的做法，让工程技术课堂上的不同群体的学生参与并改善学习。这些策略的有效性将使用GPA和保留率数据以及SDT测量仪器的结果进行定量评估。评估还包括一个定性部分，以重点小组采访奖学金获得者为特色。该项目的结果将通过会议论文、同行评议期刊以及RIT和工程技术学院的社交媒体账户进行传播。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Over its 5-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 36 undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Civil, Computer, Electrical, Electrical Mechanical, Mechanical, and Robotics and Manufacturing Engineering Technology. Students will receive scholarship support for their first five semesters at RIT. To increase retention, the project will use faculty and peer mentors, create individualized scholar support networks, and improve instruction through faculty development aimed at fostering a more welcoming environment for all students. Because the percentage of African American, Latin American and Native American (AALANA), first generation, and deaf/hard of hearing students enrolled in Engineering Technology programs at RIT exceeds national levels, the broader impact of this project lies in its potential to increase diversity in the engineering workforce. This project also has the potential to significantly advance the understanding of best practices that address the social and environmental factors which have historically contributed to low retention of underrepresented students in Engineering Technology programs. Thus, it supports a key strategic objective of NSF, to grow a more capable and diverse STEM workforce. The guiding principle of this project is to promote competence, develop relatedness (or a sense of group identity), and nurture autonomy in Engineering Technology students through the implementation of support networks and pedagogical reform. As posited by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), when these three basic psychological needs, competence, relatedness, and autonomy are met, individuals will be intrinsically motivated to support their own personal growth and well-being. This project is important because it will help to fill the void in the literature on evidence-based strategies to improve retention of underrepresented groups specifically in Engineering Technology. This project will investigate if three particular strategies designed to address social and environmental factors, indeed improve scholars' motivation and persistence. First is programmatic implementation, using an SDT framework, to address the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Second is utilization of faculty and peer mentors along with individualized scholar support networks. Third is the adoption of evidence-based practices to engage and improve learning for a diverse group of students in the Engineering Technology classroom. The effectiveness of these strategies will be evaluated quantitatively using GPA and retention data along with results from an SDT measurement instrument. The evaluation also includes a qualitative component featuring focus group interviews with scholarship recipients. The results of this project will be disseminated through conference papers, peer reviewed journals, and RIT's and the College of Engineering Technology's social media accounts. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.