HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Leveraging Social Psychology Interventions to Promote First Year STEM Persistence

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，纽约城市大学约翰杰伊学院的第二轨道：IEP旨在支持未被充分代表的少数民族（URM）理科学生从高中到大学的过渡，以增加他们的第一年留校率，并最终促进这些学生的更高毕业率。大学第一年被证明是一个关键时期，在这个时期，学生们会努力学习，并放弃获得STEM学位。该项目旨在让一年级学生更好地为科学专业的严格学术要求做好准备，并解决导致URM学生在STEM中关注和挑战的具体潜在心理过程。此外，该项目将与STEM教师合作，建立一个“成长心态”课堂。该项目旨在增加在STEM相关领域毕业的URM学生人数，提高他们的学术成果，并增加他们在STEM领域攻读研究生和职业的兴趣。该方法将通过多方面的策略同时解决URM学生的心理、学术、社会和教育需求，这些发现最终将帮助其他教育工作者制定策略，更好地支持我们西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）的学生群体。该项目的目标是：(1)通过实施实证支持的社会心理干预来提高一年级大学生对STEM的参与度和保留率；(2)通过学习技能培训和指导来增强STEM学生的文化知识和学术准备；(3)扩大STEM教师的专业知识，向学生传达成长型思维。假设参与社会心理、学习技能和时间管理培训将减少社会身份威胁，增加归属感、认同感和对STEM的兴趣。该项目由多管齐下的干预指导，将利用准实验混合因子研究设计来检查该计划是否影响客观（即GPA，第一年的保留率）和主观（例如归属感，STEM中的认同）结果。据预测，与未接受干预的学生相比，接受干预的学生的年终GPA和第一年在STEM领域的保留率将显著高于未接受干预的学生，这将促进STEM一年级学生的坚持，增加他们在STEM学科毕业的可能性。HSI计划旨在加强HSI的本科STEM教育和能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP, from City University of New York- John Jay College aims to support the high school to college transition of underrepresented minority (URM) science students to increase their first-year retention and ultimate promote higher graduation of these students. The first year of college has been shown to be a critical time in which students struggle and desist from studying and graduating with STEM degrees. The project is designed to better prepare 1st year students for the rigorous academic demands of majoring in the sciences and address the specific underlying psychological processes that contribute to URM students' concerns and challenges in STEM. In addition, the project will work with STEM faculty in establishing a “growth mindset” classroom. The project is positioned to increase the number of URM students who graduate in STEM-related fields, improve their academic outcomes, and increase their interest in pursuing graduate school and careers in STEM. The approach will address psychological, academic, social, and educational needs of URM students simultaneously through a multi-faceted strategy, and these findings will ultimately help other educators develop strategies that better support student populations in our Hispanic-serving institutions (HSI).The goals of the project are to: (1) increase first-year college students' engagement and retention in STEM via the implementation of empirically supported social psychological interventions, (2) enhance STEM students’ cultural knowledge and academic preparation through study skills training and mentoring, and (3) expand STEM faculty’s expertise to convey a growth mindset to students. It is hypothesized that participation in a social-psychological and study skills and time management training will reduce social identity threat and increase feelings of belonging, and identification and interest in STEM. The project is guided by a multi-pronged intervention that will utilize a quasi-experimental mixed factorial research design to examine whether the program influences both objective (i.e., GPA, first-year retention) and subjective (e.g., sense of belonging, identification in STEM) outcomes. It is predicted that the end-of-year GPA and first-year retention in STEM will be significantly higher for students who received the intervention than for students who did not receive the intervention and will promote persistence in first-year STEM students, increasing their likelihood of graduating in STEM disciplines. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also 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.