CAREER: Improving Persistence of Underserved Students in Psychological Science Using an AI-Based, Personalized Career Exploration Platform

教师早期职业发展（Career）计划是一项国家科学基金会范围内的活动，为有潜力在研究和教育中担任学术榜样的早期职业教师提供奖励，领导其部门或组织的使命进步，并为整合教育和研究的终身领导奠定基础。这个CAREER项目旨在通过研究如何利用人工智能（AI）来提高STEM的持久性，扩大科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）劳动力的参与。具体而言，该项目使用在线干预，通过由现实生活中的STEM专业人员录制的会话虚拟代理（“虚拟导师”）来促进学生的职业探索。学生选择并与虚拟导师互动，以了解他们的职业道路、经验和建议。该研究为那些在STEM研究领域一直得不到充分服务的学生建立了促进STEM持续发展的过程模型。通过与虚拟导师的互动，学生可以获得个性化的跟踪和职业发展资源。这项纵向研究是在加州州立大学富勒顿分校进行的，这是一所大型公共西班牙裔服务机构，重点关注心理科学专业的学生。该项目由STEM教育核心研究理事会（ECR）计划和HSI计划共同资助，前者支持推进STEM学习和学习环境基础研究、扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作，后者旨在加强西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）的本科STEM教育和能力建设。该研究采用前瞻性、纵向、混合方法，在四年的时间里收集定量和定性数据，并从现有文献中收集有关STEM持久性和学习科学的见解。该项目建立了一个心理和行为过程建模框架，预测观察到的STEM持续时间，并利用人工智能开发个性化的在线干预，用于职业探索。这项研究将产生STEM持久性模型和针对不同学生群体的量身定制的基于人工智能的干预。研究结果将广泛传播，以鼓励在其他STEM学科中采用和适应未来的人工智能应用。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。

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, and to build a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This CAREER project aims to broaden participation in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce by examining how artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed to improve persistence in STEM. Specifically, the project uses an online intervention to facilitate students’ career exploration using conversational virtual agents (“virtual mentors”) recorded by real-life STEM professionals. Students choose and engage with virtual mentors to learn about their career paths, experiences, and advice. The study models processes that promote STEM persistence over time for students who have historically been underserved in STEM fields of study. Based on interactions with virtual mentors, students receive personalized follow-up and resources for career development. This longitudinal research study is conducted at California State University, Fullerton, a large public Hispanic-Serving Institution, with a focus on students majoring in the psychological sciences. The project is co-funded by the Directorate for STEM Education Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development, and the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The study uses a prospective, longitudinal, mixed-methods approach, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data across a period of four years and gathering insights from existing literature on STEM persistence and learning sciences. The project establishes a framework for modeling psychological and behavioral processes that predict observed STEM persistence over time and develops a personalized, online intervention for career exploration using AI. Models of STEM persistence and a tailored, AI-based intervention for diverse student bodies will result from this study. Findings will be widely disseminated to encourage adoption and adaptation of future AI applications in other STEM disciplines.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.