HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: FUERTE: Fostering Undergraduate Education, Retention and Transfer Environments

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，该Track 2：实施和评估项目将增加在STEM领域获得学士学位的拉丁裔学生的数量，包括作为第一次新生进入圣玛丽大学的学生和从他们的合作伙伴西北维斯塔学院转学的学生。研究表明，拉丁裔学生在STEM劳动力中的比例偏低。造成这种差异的一个主要原因是，在STEM专业获得四年制学位的人太少了。这不仅限制了他们可获得的职业机会的范围，而且还削弱了他们的社会流动性。纠正这个问题需要了解学校教育结果不同的根本原因。在系统层面，拉美裔学生面临着与转学过程相关的障碍、课程调整不一致、教学方法不适合拉丁裔学生的需求和经验，以及难以谈判的建议过程。在个人层面上，许多人已经内化了刻板印象，这些刻板印象削弱了他们的自信，破坏了他们作为未来科学家的形象。因此，有效的应对措施必须首先承认，任何支撑学生发展的努力都必须得到制度适应的补充。该项目完全接受了这一现实，建议的活动反映了研究的进步，需要响应文化的教学方法，简化转移过程，提供适合发展的建议，学生与教师的研究和同行指导。通过这些努力，该项目的目标是产生更公平和公正的教育结果，同时促进拉丁裔学生的向上社会流动。该项目的具体目标是：1)通过创建无缝的转学途径，支持学生从两年制转到四年制；2)创造与文化相适应的课堂环境和学生支持服务体系；3)促进学生通过STEM专业的进步；以及4)培养STEM的能力。社会认知理论被应用于适应制度过程，以培养更好的归因倾向，更高的科学能力感和更强的自我效能感，这将导致拉美裔学生坚持到获得STEM学位的地步。由于他们的研究设计，学生水平特征的变化，如自我效能感，与期望的学业结果的可能性之间可以直接联系起来。这个项目的发现将对文学做出重大贡献，将社会认知理论的知识扩展到一个明显的拉丁裔校园。最终，HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建设HSIS的能力。鉴于高等教育机构的不同性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法，以激励机构和社区的变革，并促进基础研究(I)关于学生参与式学习，(Ii)关于如何有效地多样化和增加对STEM的参与，以及(Iii)提高我们对如何建设高等教育机构能力的理解。在HSI计划的支持下，我们将从这些方法中获得如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: Implementation and Evaluation Project will increase the number of Latinx students who obtain baccalaureate degrees in STEM fields, including both those who enter St. Mary’s University as first-time freshmen and those who transfer from their partner, Northwest Vista College. Research indicates that Latinx students are underrepresented in the STEM workforce. A major reason for this discrepancy is that too few are earning four-year degrees in STEM majors. Not only does this restrict the range of occupational opportunities available to them, but it also attenuates their social mobility. Rectifying this problem requires understanding the root causes of differential outcomes of schooling. At the system level, Latinx students confront barriers associated with the transfer process, misaligned curricula, pedagogies unsuitable for Latinx students’ needs and experiences, and advising processes that are difficult to negotiate. At the individual level, many have internalized stereotypes that deflate their self-confidence and undermine their image of themselves as future scientists. Effective responses, therefore, must start with acknowledging that any efforts to scaffold student development must be supplemented by institutional adaptation. This project fully embraces this reality, and the activities proposed reflect research advancements that call for culturally responsive pedagogy, streamlining of the transfer process, developmentally appropriate advising, student-faculty research, and peer mentoring. Through these efforts, the aim is to produce educational outcomes that are more equitable and just while also facilitating the upward social mobility of their Latinx students.The specific aims of the project are 1) to support the transfer of students from a two-year to a four-year institution by creating a seamless transfer pathway, 2) to create culturally responsive classroom environments and a system of student support services, 3) to facilitate student progression through STEM majors, and 4) to build competency in STEM. Social cognitive theory is applied toward adapting institutional processes to foster improved attributional tendencies, a heightened sense of competence in science, and stronger feelings of self-efficacy, which will lead Latinx students to persist to the point of earning a STEM degree. Because of their research design, straightforward connections can be made between changes in student-level characteristics, such as self-efficacy, and the probability of desirable academic outcomes. The findings from this project will make a significant contribution to the literature by extending what is known about social cognitive theory to a distinctly Latinx campus. Ultimately, the HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Supported by the HSI Program, we will draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.