Collaborating with Student Partners to Design, Implement, and Assess Equity-Minded and Research-Based Teaching and Learning Practices in Mathematics Undergraduate Courses

The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg TX

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to design, implement, and assess the Students as Learners and Teachers (SaLT) HSI program at UTRGV. This project is important due to the racial and gendered disparities in college completion rates among Hispanics, specifically Hispanic women majoring in STEM. SaLT HSI is a teaching intervention and innovation that can assist in retention and student success efforts and enhance high-quality and equitable instructional practices in mathematics undergraduate classes. The project outcomes are expected to transform frontiers of knowledge and provide insight for subsequent research studies and applications that center student voices through equity-minded and equity-ethic teaching and learning practices. The outcomes are not only expected to advance knowledge in teaching and learning but also have a broad and positive impact on the academic success of underrepresented STEM students in mathematics. The overall objective of this project is to evaluate the impact of an innovative intervention in which undergraduate students majoring in mathematics, termed "student partners," work with faculty partners in mathematics classes as collaborators to inform teaching and learning practices. The research plan integrates a mixed-methods approach by using quantitative and qualitative research, including a waitlist control group design, to explore a research question to increase knowledge about effective STEM education teaching and learning practices. The research questions explore what the impacts are of a student-centered professional development on (1) mathematics faculty members' mindset beliefs, culturally relevant teaching practices, and critical consciousness (2) students' sense of belonging, mindset beliefs, and perceptions of teaching behaviors in mathematics instructors' courses, and (3) student partners' mindset beliefs, self-efficacy, and critical consciousness. The project aims to achieve the overall objective by: 1. Determining the impact of an innovative student-centered program on mathematics faculty members' mindset beliefs, culturally relevant teaching behaviors, and critical consciousness; 2. Identifying the impact of an innovative student-centered program on Latinx students' mattering, sense of belonging, mindset beliefs, and perceptions of their instructors' mindset beliefs; and 3. Determining the impact of a student-centered professional development program on student partners' sense of belonging, perceptions of instructor's mindset beliefs, and critical consciousness. 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.