Using Multilayered Interventions to Improve Undergraduate Transfer Student Success in Biology

利用多层干预措施提高本科转学生在生物学方面的成功

• 批准号: 1821909
• 负责人: Heather Vance-Chalcraft
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: East Carolina University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-10-01 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1821909&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Using; Multilayered; Interventions; Improve; Undergraduate

An increasing percentage of students at four-year universities have transferred from another institution. Transfer students, particularly those in STEM fields, frequently receive lower grades and drop out at higher rates than traditional university students. Improving the success of transfer students will help diversify the STEM workforce and improve the STEM pipeline, since many of these individuals are from groups underrepresented in STEM, first-generation, and/or low income. The reasons for this lower success rate include both academic and social factors. Thus, a comprehensive approach is necessary to increase the retention and success of transfer students. East Carolina University (ECU), in partnership with Pitt Community College (PCC) will offer the Pre-transfer Interventions, Mentoring, and Experience with Research (PRIMER) program, to determine how to better support and retain Biology transfer students. This program will include dual enrollment courses, held at both ECU and PCC, and dual advising, to build relationships with transfer students before they transition to the ECU campus. The overall goal of PRIMER is to identify interventions that promote transfer student success in Biology, resulting in higher academic achievement, increased retention and persistence in STEM fields, and a greater sense of belonging to the community at ECU. Over time, the project has intentions to expand successful PRIMER interventions to other STEM departments at ECU, to other community colleges, and to other four-year institutions. The impact of these interventions will be shared through a pre-existing, annual, regional Transfer Student Summit, as well as through national presentations and publications. Presentations and publications will focus on identifying the interventions which provide the greatest benefit, and for what demographic groups of students, with the goal of helping institutions focus their limited resources on interventions most likely to produce their desired outcome. This information has the potential to guide any university trying to improve transfer student success, which, in turn, can aid in increasing the number of students who graduate with STEM degrees. The two primary objectives of this project include: 1) A facilitated transition for biology students between PCC and ECU, and 2) Increased transfer student use of known best practices at ECU. Strategies to meet the first objective include increased exposure of transfer students to ECU academic life while still at the community college, through dual enrollment courses, enhanced knowledge of the transfer process through dual advising, and increased social supports for students before transfer through cohort classes and inclusion in ECU events. Strategies to meet the second objective include the implementation of a mentoring program and targeted research experiences specifically for ECU Biology transfer students. By testing these interventions in isolation and combination, and contrasting treatment groups to comparison groups, the potential interactive effects of these best practices will be better understood. The outcome of the project's interventions will serve as a test of the expansion of Schlossberg's Transition Theory to transfer student transitions. This theory describes four S's (situation, self, support, and strategies) that are necessary for successful transitions. In addition, the success of our interventions will provide a test of Astin's theory of involvement, in which students' backgrounds and experiences at university influence a student's ability to achieve academic success.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.

四年制大学的学生比例越来越多，已经从另一家机构转移了。转移学生，特别是在STEM领域的学生，经常获得较低的成绩，并以比传统大学生更高的速度辍学。 提高转学学生的成功将有助于使STEM劳动力多样化并改善STEM管道，因为其中许多人来自STEM，第一代和/或低收入的人数不足的群体。 较低的成功率的原因包括学术因素和社会因素。因此，必须采用全面的方法来增加转学学生的保留和成功。东卡罗来纳大学（ECU）与皮特社区学院（PCC）合作将提供转移前干预，指导和研究（Primer）计划，以确定如何更好地支持和保留生物学转移学生。 该计划将包括在ECU和PCC举行的双重入学课程，以及双重建议，以在过渡到ECU校园之前与转学学生建立关系。 底漆的总体目标是确定促进学生在生物学方面取得成功的干预措施，从而提高学术成就，增加了STEM领域的保留率和持久性，并具有更大的ECU社区属于社区的感觉。随着时间的流逝，该项目的目的是将成功的底漆干预措施扩展到ECU的其他STEM部门，其他社区大学以及其他四年制机构。这些干预措施的影响将通过预先存在的年度，区域转学学生峰会以及国家演讲和出版物分享。演讲和出版物将着重于确定提供最大好处的干预措施，以及为学生的人口组群体，目的是帮助机构将有限的资源集中在最有可能产生所需结果的干预措施上。该信息有可能指导任何试图改善转学生成功的大学，这反过来又可以帮助增加具有STEM学位的学生人数。 该项目的两个主要目标包括：1）PCC和ECU之间生物学学生的促进过渡，以及2）增加了转移学生对ECU的已知最佳实践的使用。 达到第一个目标的策略包括通过双重入学课程，通过双重招生课程增加转移学生到ECU学术生活的曝光率增加，通过双重建议增强对转移过程的了解，并在通过同龄人班级转移和进入ECU活动之前对学生的社会支持增加。 实现第二个目标的策略包括实施指导计划和专门针对ECU生物学转移学生的针对性研究经验。通过隔离和组合测试这些干预措施，并将对比的治疗组与比较组进行对比，可以更好地理解这些最佳实践的潜在互动效果。 该项目干预措施的结果将用于测试Schlossberg的过渡理论以转移学生过渡的扩展。 该理论描述了成功过渡所必需的四个S（情况，自我，支持和策略）。 此外，我们的干预措施的成功将对Astin的参与理论进行测试，在该理论中，学生的背景和大学的经验影响了学生取得​​成功的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来支持的。