Fostering Communities of Practice Through Research and Peer Mentoring

该项目旨在为拉美裔服务机构开发一个全国性的STEM教育模式，让大学社区的所有成员都参与进来。这项工作的核心是发展“学者学院”，这是一个以群体为基础的项目，为本科生提供同伴指导、本科生研究机会和其他支持。该学院旨在提高本科生的成功率，尤其是西班牙裔学生。该项目将解决一些有据可查的本科生成功挑战，包括西班牙裔STEM学生坚持STEM的比例低于非西班牙裔同龄人的事实。实践社区（cop）——由学生、教师和管理人员组成的共同关注、共同工作和学习的群体——将在学生、教师和管理人员之间发展，以确保长期留住学生，并通过维持最佳实践来实现机构转型。通过这个项目，基恩将增加与本科生一起从事研究的教师数量，他们也将接受文化响应指导方面的培训。这些做法旨在提高学生的保留率，就业准备，并提高参与者的归属感。作为项目活动的一部分，该学者学院的关键将是培养三个cop。为了培养这些社区，活动将在基恩大学两个学术单位试点的小型项目的基础上实施。第一个这样的活动是建立一个学生学者社区，并通过提供STEM专业特定版本的“过渡到基恩”一年级研讨会，满足学生在关键摩擦点的需求。对于D、F和退学（DFW）率较高的一、二年级课程，将采用同伴指导和同伴领导的团队学习的方式进行补充指导。其次，学生将参与小型教师领导的研究团队，使用西班牙裔服务机构计算联盟（CAHSI）亲和研究小组模型，在多年的进步和高级学生的指导下。第三项活动包括实施CAHSI和基恩教与学中心的签名实践，为教师提供各种专业发展经验，旨在提高教师的建议和教学方法。第四项也是最后一项活动是组成一个由教员和行政人员组成的小组，他们将参加一个机构改造缔约方会议，以帮助项目迭代地改进和制度化关键的项目组成部分。项目研究将产生关于项目主要干预措施有效性的新知识，以及哪些机制支持具体做法的持续和制度化。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并在HSI进行能力建设。考虑到hsi的多样化性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区转型，并促进基础研究(1)关于参与式学生学习，(2)关于如何有效地多样化和增加STEM参与，以及(3)提高我们对如何在hsi建立机构能力的理解。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。

This project aims to develop a national model for STEM education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions that engages all members of the university community. Central to this effort is the development of a “Scholars Academy,” a cohort-based program to support undergraduate students with peer mentoring, undergraduate research opportunities, and additional support. The academy is designed to improve undergraduate success, particularly for Hispanic students. The project will address a number of well documented challenges to undergraduate student success, including the fact that Hispanic STEM students persist in STEM at a lower rate than their non-Hispanic peers. Communities of Practice (CoPs) – groups of people who share a common concern and work and learn together – will be developed among students, faculty, and administrators to ensure longer term retention of students and create institutional transformation by sustaining best practices. Through this project, Kean will increase the number of faculty engaging in research with undergraduates, and who are also trained in culturally responsive mentoring. These practices are intended to increase student retention, job readiness, and improve participants' sense of belonging.Key to this Scholars Academy will be three CoPs fostered as part of the project activities. To foster these communities, activities will be implemented based on smaller programs already piloted in two academic units at Kean. The first such activity is to build a community of student scholars, and meet the needs of students during critical attrition points, by offering a STEM major-specific version of the "Transition to Kean” first-year seminar. First- and second-year courses with high D, F, and withdrawal (DFW) rates will be targeted for supplemental instruction using peer-mentoring and peer-led team learning. Secondly, students will engage in small faculty-led research teams using the Computing Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institutions’ (CAHSI) Affinity Research Group model, with progress over multiple years and mentoring by senior-level students. A third activity involves implementing signature practices from CAHSI and Kean’s Center for Teaching and Learning to provide a variety of faculty professional development experiences aimed at enhancing advising and faculty pedagogy. A fourth and final activity is to form a team of faculty and administrators who will participate in an institutional transformation CoP that will help the project iteratively improve and institutionalize key project components. Project research will generate new knowledge on the effectiveness of the project's main interventions and what mechanisms supported the persistence and institutionalization of specific practices. 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 that are supported by this program.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.