Collaborative Proposal: Taking the long view: Investigating the role of biology interest and far-sighted career goals on students' persistence in STEM career pathways

合作提案：着眼长远：研究生物学兴趣和远见职业目标对学生坚持 STEM 职业道路的作用

• 批准号: 1711082
• 负责人: Sarah Eddy
• 金额: $ 20.08万
• 依托单位: Florida International University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1711082&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Proposal; Taking; long; view

Many efforts are underway to meet the science and technology workforce needs in the United States. Although students enter college with interests in STEM fields, many do not persist in these majors. This project will investigate two fundamental, yet understudied factors that may limit participation of students, including those from underrepresented groups in biology careers: the strength of students' interest in the discipline they are pursuing and the clarity of their career goals throughout their studies. This proposal lays the groundwork for investigating the influence of these two factors on post-college preparedness by documenting the current range of interest and career goals in entering undergraduate biology majors at two institutions and investigating whether these factors predict the critical experiences students pursue during their undergraduate career. Students without clear career goals and interests may not recognize which experiences are important to pursue during their undergraduate career, may have trouble choosing among different beneficial experiences, or may not be motivated to persist when things get difficult. This project will also advance our understanding about how early students need to develop these goals and interests to become competitive during college. These findings will inform the design and deployment of effective interventions to help students develop career goals and stronger disciplinary interests before they lose opportunities to access critical experiences. The intellectual merit of this project is to bring interest development theory and, for the first time, vocational development theory to characterize the roles of biology interest and career goal clarity in advancing students' progress in biology career paths. Retrospective interviews with medical and graduate students in biology will characterize the timing of and relationships between students' interest and career goal development and their pursuit of critical disciplinary experiences during their undergraduate career. A longitudinal study of a large sample of entering biology majors with different levels of biology interest and at different stages of career goal development will complement this analysis by tracking when students acquire critical disciplinary experiences over the first three years of college. Together, these studies will provide evidence on 1) how early and how often students who matriculate to medical and graduate school access critical experiences, 2) whether disciplinary interest and career goal development impact pursuit of critical experiences and maintenance of biology career goals, and 3) whether students from historically underserved groups are less likely to enter college with developed biology interests and/or career goals. In addition, the project will increase understanding the importance of biology career pathways as an alternative to the traditional measure of persistence: retention in the biology major.

为了满足美国科技劳动力的需求，正在进行许多努力。尽管学生进入大学时对 STEM 领域感兴趣，但许多人并没有坚持选择这些专业。 该项目将调查两个可能限制学生参与的基本但尚未得到充分研究的因素，包括那些来自生物学职业中代表性不足的群体的学生：学生对他们所追求的学科的兴趣强度以及他们在整个学习过程中职业目标的明确性。该提案通过记录当前在两个机构进入本科生物学专业的兴趣和职业目标范围，并调查这些因素是否预测学生在本科期间追求的关键经历，为调查这两个因素对大学后准备的影响奠定了基础。职业。没有明确职业目标和兴趣的学生可能无法认识到在本科生涯中追求哪些经历很重要，可能难以在不同的有益经历中进行选择，或者当事情变得困难时可能没有动力坚持下去。该项目还将加深我们对早期学生需要如何发展这些目标和兴趣才能在大学期间保持竞争力的理解。这些发现将为有效干预措施的设计和部署提供信息，以帮助学生在失去获得关键经验的机会之前制定职业目标和更强的学科兴趣。该项目的智力价值在于引入兴趣发展理论，并首次引入职业发展理论来描述生物学兴趣和职业目标明确性在促进学生在生物学职业道路上取得进步的作用。对医学生和生物学研究生的回顾性访谈将描述学生的兴趣和职业目标发展以及他们在本科生涯中对关键学科经验的追求的时间安排和关系。对具有不同生物学兴趣水平和职业目标发展不同阶段的进入生物学专业的大样本进行纵向研究，将通过跟踪学生在大学前三年获得关键学科经验的时间来补充这一分析。这些研究将共同​​提供以下方面的证据：1) 进入医学院和研究生院的学生获得关键经验的时间和频率；2) 学科兴趣和职业目标的发展是否会影响对关键经验的追求和生物学职业目标的维持；以及 3 ）来自历史上服务不足群体的学生是否不太可能以发达的生物学兴趣和/或职业目标进入大学。此外，该项目将加深人们对生物学职业道路重要性的理解，作为传统的持久性衡量标准的替代方案：保留生物学专业。

项目成果

Measuring university students’ interest in biology: evaluation of an instrument targeting Hidi and Renninger’s individual interest

衡量大学生对生物学的兴趣：针对 Hidi 和 Renninger 个人兴趣的工具评估

• DOI: 10.1186/s40594-020-00217-4
• 发表时间: 2020-12
• 期刊: International Journal of STEM Education
• 影响因子: 6.7
• 作者: Knekta, Eva;Rowland, Ashley A.;Corwin, Lisa A.;Eddy, Sarah
• 通讯作者: Eddy, Sarah

One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Using Factor Analysis to Gather Validity Evidence When Using Surveys in Your Research

一刀切：在研究中使用调查时，使用因子分析来收集有效性证据

• DOI: 10.1187/cbe.18-04-0064
• 发表时间: 2019-03
• 期刊: CBE—Life Sciences Education
• 作者: Knekta, Eva;Runyon, Christopher;Eddy, Sarah;Brickman, Peggy
• 通讯作者: Brickman, Peggy