Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Examining how faculty awareness of systemic barriers and growth mindset influences students' belonging, self-efficacy, and success in STEM

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

Traditional STEM college programs are based on cultural norms that do not account for the experiences of students with identities that are historically underrepresented in STEM. In practice, these norms may create hidden challenges to underrepresented students’ success over the course of their STEM education. This project is designed to look at college instructors as agents for change in STEM education by studying (a) their attitudes about the flexible nature of intelligence (i.e., growth mindset) and (b) their awareness of systemic barriers in STEM. Combined, these attitudes could influence the ways instructors engage in culturally relevant teaching practices and make meaning of student behaviors. This research will be of significance in advancing knowledge about STEM learning and learning environments that increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in classrooms. This project also has implications for broadening participation in STEM fields by directly studying students’ experiences as they relate to STEM instructor’s attitudes. Overall, this research could contribute to STEM instructor’s professional development and help to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. This study is designed to examine how STEM faculty’s awareness of systemic barriers in STEM education and growth mindset beliefs influence undergraduate students’ success in STEM. Existing quantitative research has not identified the independent contributions of these faculty attitudes for their engagement with culturally relevant teaching pedagogies, and the resulting implications for STEM students’ outcomes. Findings from this project could provide preliminary support that analysis of multiple dimensions of STEM faculty’s attitudes is crucial for addressing existing challenges to underrepresented student success. This project has three phases: 1) STEM faculty complete an online experimental survey to examine whether their awareness of systemic bias and growth mindset influences their causal attributions for an academically struggling underrepresented student. 2) Faculty and student recruitment from introductory STEM college courses to complete a survey at the beginning of the academic semester (Time 1), and students complete a follow-up survey at the end of the academic semester (Time 2). Findings are designed to examine whether faculty’s attitudes influence students’ belonging, self-efficacy, and expectations for future STEM success. 3) An online experimental design to examine whether an experimental manipulation of a hypothetical faculty member’s attitudes will influence underrepresented and traditional undergraduate students’ STEM interest, self-efficacy, and course success. Additional analysis will also be conducted in each study to explore differences by faculty and student race, gender, social class, and sexuality. This research could have important implications for STEM education by illuminating the influence of these attitudes for faculty’s causal attributions of academically struggling students; the direct implications for students’ classroom experiences; and students’ resulting attitudes about STEM. Overall, this research is designed to transform STEM education research by highlighting the critical roles of both individual and systemic factors for undergraduate student success. This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field. 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.