Testing a Theoretical Model of Social Influence and High-impact Pedagogical Practices for Sustaining Undergraduate STEM Student Success

Agnes Scott College, Decatur GA

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE:EHR) this project aims to serve the national interest by increasing the success of women, including women of color, in STEM fields. It aims to do so by conducting research that can increase understanding of how to create environments that develop both STEM expertise and the desire to persist in STEM fields. To enter and succeed in STEM career pathways, students must not only master STEM content and skills but must also believe in their knowledge and competence (STEM self-efficacy). In addition, they must identify as scientists and mathematicians, while finding value and utility in STEM professional work. This project seeks to contribute knowledge about what practices lead to successful outcomes in populations underrepresented in STEM, including women and women of color in a liberal arts environment. The project will test whether improved supplemental instruction in a STEM learning center increases student knowledge of key concepts in introductory courses and improves STEM self-efficacy. The project will also examine whether coordination of improved supplemental instruction, mentored research, and peer-to-peer mentoring improve student persistence and integration into STEM careers. The study will test the capacity of interventions to diminish or eliminate disparities and improve outcomes at both the student level and institution level over time, as well as generate knowledge about the reasons that students decide to leave or continue in STEM career pathways. The project will target supplemental instruction to impact student self-efficacy and persistence in STEM gateway courses. In collaboration with faculty, the project team will develop materials to help undergraduate learning assistants facilitate student learning outside the classroom. The project will further develop and coordinate mentored research and peer mentoring programs that cultivate STEM identity and community values. The project hypothesizes that STEM self-efficacy will mediate early-term student outcomes such as grades and persistence and that STEM identity and values will mediate later-term outcomes including STEM degree attainment. The project will investigate whether: (1) focused coordination of co-curricular programs improve student-level outcomes in content mastery and process skills, while improving institution-level outcomes in retention and decreasing disparities; (2) student outcomes are mediated by STEM self-efficacy, identity, or values; and (3) the reasons students decide to continue in STEM at key transitions align with STEM self-efficacy, identity, and/or values. The project will determine whether the key support for student persistence in STEM changes over time. For example, although content mastery and self-efficacy may sufficiently support persistence early in college, it may be that identifying as a STEM professional and relating to the values espoused by the STEM community become essential for persistence through degree attainment and intention to pursue a STEM career. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This project is in the Institutional and Community Transformation track, through which the IUSE: EHR program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities. 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.