Self-Concept of Neurodivergent Undergraduate Students in STEM

STEM神经分歧本科生的自我概念

• 批准号: 2321186
• 负责人: Stephen Podowitz-Thomas
• 金额: $ 34.95万
• 依托单位: Thomas Jefferson University
• 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: 2023-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2321186&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Self; Concept; Neurodivergent; Undergraduate; Students

Self-concept is the set of ideas that people hold about who they are, how they behave, and who they have the potential to become. The self-concept of students has a strong impact on their academic success and persistence in higher education. This project aims to develop a tool to measure self-concept as a neurodivergent student in STEM and investigate its relationship to academic motivation and identification with STEM. Although a significant and growing number of undergraduates are neurodivergent, neurodivergent students continue to be underrepresented in STEM and disproportionately leave STEM disciplines. Only recently has national attention begun to shift towards supporting neurodivergent students in ways that go beyond providing legally-required accommodations as they develop positive self-concepts and engage in self-determined behaviors. This project plans to support that effort by providing a deeper understanding of the self-concept of neurodivergent STEM undergraduates. The research seeks also to illuminate ways in which STEM departments (partnering with campus disability resource centers / disability services offices) may cultivate, not only an accessibility-focused, but inclusion- and equity-focused culture for their neurodivergent students. Developing this culture is one means of supporting the persistence of neurodivergent students in STEM. This project will also involve the professional development and mentorship of the principal investigator, building the capacity of the principal investigator to conduct mixed methods education research focused on partnering with neurodivergent students to support their identity development and learning in STEM.The self-concept scale under development will be based on an item pool developed by the principal investigator within existing theoretical frameworks of self-concept and models of disability, using an existing qualitative dataset of neurodivergent STEM students’ perspectives on disability. Items will first be evaluated by panels of experts and members from the study population. Then, the measure will be tested through cognitive interviews, followed by large-scale testing and validation based on internal structure through factor analysis. Finally, the measure will be examined for consequences of assessment with focus groups comprising disability resource center staff, STEM faculty/administrators, and neurodivergent students. Data will be collected from neurodivergent undergraduates at a range of institution types. As a potential benefit to participants and the broader community, throughout the project timeline, the research team will seek to engage neurodivergent undergraduate students and disability resource center staff through online discussion panel events with neurodivergent STEM graduate students and professionals meant to help contribute to students’ visions of their possible selves. For this individual investigator development grant, the principal investigator will be mentored by experts in psychometrics, neurodivergent students in higher education, and disabled students in STEM, while engaging in professional development workshops on scale development and structural equation modeling. The principal investigator will also work with an advisory board with a broader range of expertise related to the project. Through this mentorship, the principal investigator will build on their previous training in statistical analysis and their recent research on the experiences and learning of neurodivergent STEM undergraduates to develop core knowledge on scale development for this student population. The project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.

自我概念是人们对自己的身份，表现方式以及有可能成为谁的想法。学生的自我概念对他们在高等教育中的学术成就和持久性有很大的影响。该项目旨在开发一种工具，以衡量自我概念为STEM的神经差异学生，并研究其与STEM的学术动机和识别的关系。尽管大量且越来越多的本科生是神经化的，但神经厌恶的学生在STEM中的代表性不足，并且不成比例地留下了茎学科。直到最近，民族的关注才开始朝着支持神经差异的学生朝着以不仅提供法律征收的住宿方式发展积极的自我概念并从事自我确定的行为的方式转向支持神经差异的学生。该项目计划通过更深入地了解神经化茎本科生的自我概念来支持这一努力。该研究还旨在阐明STEM部门（与校园残疾资源中心 /残疾服务办公室合作）的方式，不仅可以为其神经不满的学生培养以可访问性为中心的，而且还以包容性和股票为中心的文化。发展这种文化是支持神经厌恶学生在STEM中的持久性的一种手段。 This project will also involve the professional development and mentality of the principal investigator, building the capacity of the principal investigator to conduct mixed methods education research focused on partnering with neurodivergent students to support their identity development and learning in STEM.The self-concept scale under development will be based on an item pool developed by the principal investigator within existing theoretical frameworks of self-concept and models of disability, using an existing qualitative dataset of neurodivergent STEM Students’关于残疾的观点。项目将首先由专家小组和研究人群的成员进行评估。然后，测量将通过认知访谈进行测试，然后通过因子分析基于内部结构进行大规模测试和验证。最后，将检查测量值的焦点小组的评估后果，以完成残疾资源中心工作人员，STEM教师/管理员和神经差异学生。数据将从各种机构类型的神经化本科生中收集。作为参与者和更广泛的社区的潜在好处，在整个项目时间表中，研究团队将通过在线讨论小组活动与神经化的STEM研究生和专业人士一起通过在线讨论小组活动来吸引神经差异的本科生和残疾人资源中心员工，旨在帮助学生对学生可能自己的自身愿景做出贡献。对于这项个人调查员发展赠款，首席研究者将由精神计量学专家，高等教育的神经散发学专家以及STEM的残疾学生进行介绍，同时在规模发展和结构性等价建模上进行专业发展研讨会。首席调查员还将与顾问委员会合作，该顾问委员会的专业知识范围更广泛。通过这项备受制，首席研究人员将基于他们先前在统计分析方面的培训以及他们对神经差异STEM大学生的经验和学习的最新研究，以发展有关该学生人群规模发展的核心知识。该项目得到了NSF的STEM教育研究（ECR：BCSER）计划的NSF核心研究建设能力的支持，该计划旨在建立研究人员进行高质量的STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛的Impact Impact Implaster Impacter审查Criteria来通过评估来通过评估来获得的支持。