Reimagining Grading to Support Nontraditional and Rural Students in High Enrollment, Gateway STEM Courses

重新构想评分以支持非传统和农村学生的高入学率、入门 STEM 课程

• 批准号: 2222289
• 负责人: Tara Slominski
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: North Dakota State University Fargo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2222289&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Reimagining; Grading; Support; Nontraditional; Rural

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Common classroom practices, such as grading and the use of grades to assess knowledge and performance, may have unintended consequences on students who invariably derive an awareness of their own academic abilities from the results of those grading structures. In fact, these traditional practices may inadvertently create and promote inequities among different student groups, particularly in large enrollment courses, but these issues have largely been unexplored. This postdoctoral research fellowship project seeks to examine the impact of grading practices on self-concept and STEM persistence with a special focus on rural and nontraditional students. The project has promise to produce new insights about equitable classroom and grading practices for rural and nontraditional students that are compatible with the constraints of high enrollment gateway courses. In addition to conducting the research project, the investigator will build STEM education research capacity in quantitative methods and approaches through an explicit professional development plan.This project's research hypothesis is that nontraditional and rural students are especially vulnerable to the limitations of traditional grading when used in high enrollment, gateway STEM courses. The investigator will use a mixed-methods, community-based participatory research approach with three objectives. First is to explore the relationship between grading structures and nontraditional and rural students’ self-concept and intentions to persist in high enrollment, gateway STEM courses. Second is to characterize how aspects of traditional and alternative grading schemes influence nontraditional and rural students’ academic self-concept and intentions to persist in STEM. Third is to develop empirically supported approaches of equitable grading strategies that are conducive to high enrollment STEM classrooms and are particularly supportive for rural students and students that identify as nontraditional. The findings could provide faculty with practical assessment and grading approaches to address the systemic inequitable practices associated with grading and create more equitable learning environments for students broadly.The project responds to 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.

该奖项的全部或部分资金根据《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）提供。 常见的课堂实践，例如评分和使用成绩来评估知识和表现，可能会对以下学生产生意想不到的后果。事实上，这些传统做法可能会无意中造成和促进不同学生群体之间的不平等，特别是在大招生课程中，但这些问题在很大程度上已经存在。该博士后研究奖学金项目旨在研究评分实践对自我概念和 STEM 坚持的影响，特别关注农村和非传统学生，该项目有望为农村学生提供关于公平课堂和评分实践的新见解。除了开展研究项目外，研究者还将通过明确的专业发展计划，以定量的方法和途径建立STEM教育研究能力。该项目的研究假设是：非传统学生和农村学生在高入学率入门 STEM 课程中使用时特别容易受到传统评分的限制。研究者将使用混合方法、基于社区的参与性研究方法，其三个目标是探索评分之间的关​​系。其次是描述传统和替代评分方案的各个方面如何影响非传统和农村学生的学术自我概念。第三，制定基于经验的公平评分策略方法，有利于 STEM 课堂的高入学率，特别是对农村学生和非传统学生的支持。研究结​​果可以为教师提供实用的评估和评分。解决与评分相关的系统性不公平做法的方法，并为学生创造更公平的学习环境。该项目响应 STEM 教育博士后研究奖学金 (STEM Ed PRF) 计划，旨在增强研究知识，近期博士生在 STEM、STEM 教育、教育和相关学科领域的技能和实践，以促进他们为从事基础和应用研究做好准备，从而增进该领域的知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得通过以下方式获得支持：使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。