Collaborative Research: Characterizing Best Practices of Instructors who Have Narrowed Performance Gaps in Undergraduate Student Achievement in Introductory STEM Courses

合作研究：缩小本科生 STEM 入门课程成绩差距的讲师的最佳实践

• 批准号: 2420369
• 负责人: Sarah Eddy
• 金额: $ 65.84万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2420369&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Characterizing; Best; Practices

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate student achievement in introductory STEM courses. It will do so by identifying classroom practices that enable a greater number of students to thrive in these courses. Whether or not a person completes a four-year undergraduate degree is a primary driver of income levels. Thus, barriers to earning degrees can present significant obstacles to socioeconomic mobility in the United States. One such barrier is successful completion of introductory STEM courses. Persistence in these courses varies even in STEM disciplines in which students from under-represented groups enter the major at the same rates as their majority peers. Persistence of students is affected by how their instructors teach. For example, incorporating active learning methods in introductory STEM courses can increase student achievement and lower performance gaps. However, not all implementations of active learning are equally effective for supporting these outcomes. A meta-analysis of over 46,000 students in a wide array of STEM courses compared student outcomes in lecture-based versus active learning classrooms. Active learning reduced achievement gaps in exam scores by an average of 40% and the gap in failure rates by 75%. Surprisingly, some active learning interventions widened achievement gaps, raising questions about why the variation exists. Findings from the literature point to two complementary elements of the classroom experience that are necessary to close achievement gaps: (1) an inclusive environment where all students believe they can be successful, which primes them to meaningfully engage; and (2) active learning that follows best practices for how people learn. This project team aims to identify and test the impact of specific elements of classroom culture and course design that effectively narrow achievement gaps.This project has three aims: (1) Generate an explanatory model of achievement gaps by identifying and measuring a set of critical elements for closing these gaps in 12 courses identified in a meta-analysis that either narrowed or widened achievement gaps; (2) Establish generalizability of critical elements on achievement gaps by training and validating a predictive model on a national sample of 40 additional introductory courses from a wide array of institution types; (3) Develop, evaluate, and promote a Practitioner’s Toolkit for Closing Achievement Gaps. This Toolkit will include instructor and student questionnaires that feed directly to a data processing application that fits the predictive model for unique classrooms. In addition, the Toolkit will include self-reflection activities to promote engagement with the personalized results of the predictive model and a guidebook for improvement that explains implementation of each critical element. Thus, this project intends to produce a novel set of tools that instructors can use to enhance student performance in higher education, helping to make a four-year degree attainable by all students. The tools developed by the project will be freely available online and disseminated through invited seminars, workshops, and presentations at national meetings. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.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.

该项目旨在通过提高本科生在入门 STEM 课程中的成绩来服务于国家利益，无论是否完成四年制本科课程，该项目都将通过确定课堂实践来帮助更多的学生取得进步。因此，获得学位的障碍可能对美国的社会经济流动构成重大障碍，其中一个障碍是成功完成 STEM 入门课程，即使在学生所在的 STEM 学科中，这些课程的坚持程度也各不相同。从代表性不足的群体与大多数同龄人的入学率相同。例如，将主动学习方法纳入入门 STEM 课程可以提高学生的成绩并缩小成绩差距。对超过 46,000 名学生进行的各种 STEM 课程的荟萃分析显示，主动学习与课堂主动学习的学生成绩差距缩小了。令人惊讶的是，一些主动学习干预措施扩大了成绩差距​​，这引发了关于为什么存在这种差异的问题，文献中的发现指出了课堂体验中两个必要的补充要素。缩小成绩差距：(1) 一个包容的环境，让所有学生都相信自己能够取得成功，这使他们能够有意义地参与；(2) 遵循人们学习方式的最佳实践的主动学习。课堂文化特定元素的影响该项目有三个目标：(1) 通过识别和衡量一组关键要素来缩小成绩差距，从而建立一个成绩差距的解释模型，这些要素用于缩小荟萃分析中确定的 12 门课程中的差距，这些课程要么缩小了成绩差距​​，要么缩小了成绩差距​​。 (2) 通过对来自各种机构类型的 40 门附加入门课程的全国样本进行培训和验证预测模型，建立成就差距关键要素的普遍性； (3) 开发、评估和推广用于缩小成绩差距的从业者工具包 该工具包将包括直接输入适合独特课堂预测模型的数据处理应用程序的教师和学生调查问卷。此外，该工具包还将包括自我反思活动，以促进对个性化结果的参与。因此，该项目旨在开发一套新颖的工具，教师可以使用这些工具来提高学生在高等教育中的表现，从而帮助制定一个改进的指南。所有学生均可获得四年制学位。该项目开发的工具将在网上免费提供，并通过受邀研讨会、讲习班和全国会议上的演讲进行传播。 NSF IUSE：EHR 计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高其有效性。通过机构和社区转型轨道，该计划支持所有学生的 STEM 教育，支持高等教育机构和学科社区改革和改进 STEM 教育的努力。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。