Profiles of Science Engagement: Broadening Participation by Understanding Individual and Contextual Influences

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

The ECR (Education and Human Resources Core Research) program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This study will investigate student engagement in science in the interest of of broadening participation in STEM fields. This will be an important undertaking since research shows that low student engagement is a major challenge for students from subpopulations often underrepresented in STEM fields. The research will help advance knowledge in STEM areas where empirical studies of student engagement have lagged behind theoretical work in this area. Few studies have measured student engagement holistically as a multifaceted construct for broadening participation in science. This study will advance knowledge in STEM education by identifying instructional contexts that foster optimal student engagement and by examining whether adolescent students' engagement profiles in science vary systematically by gender, grade, race/ethnicity, and the intersection of these factors. It will serve the national interest by investigating the extent to which engagement profiles are consistent across and related to features of the science learning context, achievement and persistence-related outcomes; and if these relationships differ by gender, grade, race/ethnicity, and the intersection of these factors. The study will also examine how science educators respond to the identified profiles and to variations observed, and will use this knowledge in designing materials to disseminate findings to practitioners. This project will use a person-oriented analytic approach to examine individual differences and contextual variation in students' engagement in different science learning environments, and to link engagement patterns to students' achievement and persistence in STEM fields. Rich multi-method data sets will be used to develop profiles of student engagement involving adolescents' cognitive, affective, and behavioral states during the science learning process. These data will be instrumental in focusing, guiding, and communicating research efforts to practice. In addition to the knowledge generated and disseminated through traditional academic outlets, the project will develop two tangible products. The first product will be a free and publicly available statistical software library, or package, of tools and functions needed to conduct person-oriented analysis in R, the open-source programming language and software. These tools will be available for researchers, scholars, and developers. The second product will be a user-friendly guide that will inform science educators about engagement profiles and practices that engage students, including those from underrepresented groups in science, in the most meaningful ways. The guide to student engagement will help educators identify and respond to student engagement around science content, and to design lesson plans that may support greater engagement. The guide will be used for purposes of professional development and teacher preparation, impacting STEM scholars and educators, and training graduate students and post-doctoral fellow as they take part in research activities.