Journal for STEM education research最新文献

To promote diversity in the STEM workforce, undergraduate research training programs incorporating a variety of intervention strategies have been developed to support students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in overcoming numerous systemic barriers to pursuing careers in science. However, relatively little research has focused on how students experience and value these interventions and the ways in which the interventions support student success. The current study analyzed qualitative interviews from participants (n=15) in a comprehensive research training program for undergraduates historically underrepresented in biomedical research to investigate the student perspective on how specific program components address barriers and support their research training, academic progress, and career preparation. Findings indicated that students benefit from authentic research experiences, mentoring, supplemental curriculum, financial assistance, and a supportive program environment. Participants described how the program helped them address financial concerns, navigate academic and career choices, build science identity and efficacy, and feel a sense of belonging within a caring community. The study highlights how multi-faceted research training programs offering a variety of supports can contribute to student retention and development according to the needs and circumstances of individual students.

Technologies have become an essential part of the daily life of our children. Consequently, artifacts that imply the early adoption of abstract thinking affect the imagination of children and young people in relation to the world of technology, now much more than they did in the past. With the emerging importance of robots in many aspects of our everyday lives, the goal of this study is to investigate which mental representations children have about robots. To this end, drawings from 104 children aged between 7 and 12 years old were used as a map of representations, considering the drawings as a proxy capable of evoking learned or emerging mental frameworks. The drawings were analyzed in several steps: they were first labeled using binary descriptors and then classified using clustering methods based on Hamming distances between drawings. Finally, questionnaire items covering children's perceptions about robots were analyzed for each of the resulting cluster separately to identify differences between them. The results show that there are relationships between the way children draw robots and their perception about robots' capabilities as well as their aspirations to pursue a career in science. These findings can provide meaningful insights into how to design educational robots and learning activities for children to learn with and about robots.

Public library makerspaces intend to contribute to the development of children from marginalized communities through the education of digital technology and creativity and by stimulating young people to experience new social roles and develop their identity. Learning in these informal settings puts demands on the organization of the makerspace, the activities, and the support of the children. The present study investigates how children evaluate their activities and experiences in a public library makerspace both in the after-school programs and during school visits. Furthermore, it examines the effectiveness of the training program for the makerspace coaches. The study covers self-evaluations by children (n = 307), and interviews with children (n = 27) and makerspace coaches (n = 11). Children report a lot of experiences concerning creating (maker skills, creativity) and maker mindset (motivation, persistence, confidence). Experiences with collaboration (helping each other) were mentioned to a lesser extent. Critical features of the training program for makerspace coaches were (i) adaptation to the prior knowledge, skills and needs of makerspace coaches, (ii) input of expert maker educators, (iii) emphasis on learning by doing, (iv) room for self-employed learning, and (v) collaboration with colleagues.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41979-022-00070-w.

This study explored the implementation of a novel approach to dual credit referred to as the facilitator model that can be suited for STEM-focused coursework such as courses focused on engineering, design, technology, and innovation. Unlike other models, high school teachers facilitate the implementation of a college course for both high school and college credit in collaboration with a university instructor who evaluates student learning. This novel approach was specifically implemented for an open-ended undergraduate design course within an engineering technology college, similar to many first-year engineering course experiences that emphasize project-based learning, from a large research-intensive public university. For this study, the facilitator model was piloted with five high school teachers as facilitators of an undergraduate design course for dual credit at two innovative, STEM-focused public charter schools. The qualitative research design focused on examining (1) teacher needs while implementing, and perceptions of, the dual credit facilitator model for an undergraduate design course in urban public charter schools and (2) the impact of this model on student learning. This study included the collection and analysis of over 90 h of interviews, focus groups, surveys, and observations. Results provide a promising outlook for the use of the facilitator model when delivering dual credit content that is open ended and within the context of design, technology, and engineering by (1) navigating multiple institutional policies and processes related to dual-credit implementation, (2) providing ongoing support and fostering collaboration between high schools and university, (3) enabling students to earn directly transcripted college credits that count as a required course toward degree completion, and (4) increasing affordability and access to dual credit coursework. These potential advantages over other dual credit models can help address barriers that may limit access to dual credit coursework, specifically for underserved high schools.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41979-022-00075-5.

This report describes the 10-year outcome of implementing practices that support and foster success of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate training at Brown University. The results show sustained improvements in compositional diversity, retention, and degree attainment of supported students relative to their peers. Among the outcomes is an increase in enrolled student diversity from 19 (35 of 179) to 26% (58 of 223) for historically underrepresented minority (URM) students and an increase in Ph.D. degree attainment from 4 (1 of 25) to 14% (6 of 44) for this group. These achievements follow the introduction and coordination of academic and co-curricular practices through the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences-funded Brown University Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) Program. At the center of these outcomes is the alignment of IMSD practices with recent diversity initiatives launched by the university. The outcomes described result from long-term commitments to building a culture that includes: (1) development of relationships that serve underrepresented students, (2) provision of a personalized education program of support and skills-based learning that supplements discipline-based research and coursework, and (3) investments in processes that build a culture that values and benefits from diversity. These practices may yield similar outcomes and success for students when applied elsewhere.

Improving college STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) student learning outcomes is an ongoing area of focus in Institutions of Higher Education (IHE). This reform includes challenging, changing, and adapting both teaching practices and the learning environment. Communities of practice (CoPs) can support faculty in making these shifts; however, creating large-scale instructional changes in STEM education requires a more careful look at the existing systems and structures in place. In this paper, we investigate a network of regional CoPs composed mainly of mathematics faculty from IHE focused on teaching with inquiry methods. Understanding what faculty need and value to support their instructional changes is important as CoPs and other mechanisms are put in place to increase student success. In this qualitative study, we use the value framework developed by Wenger et al. (2011) to dissect the variety of ways faculty engage and find value in their CoP participation. Faculty participants expressed that CoP participation created unique layers of value in helping them to identify resources to support teaching with inquiry especially during a pandemic, shift their beliefs about teaching, and engage with a network of peers about mathematics and teaching. Findings from this study, conducted during the COVID-19 global pandemic, provide preliminary insights for STEM stakeholders interested in large-scale, ongoing instructional reform to improve student learning outcomes and for networks interested in collectively supporting CoPs with ongoing rather than finite goals.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41979-021-00061-3.

Computational thinking is widely recognized as important, not only to those interested in computer science and mathematics but also to every student in the twenty-first century. However, the concept of computational thinking is arguably complex; the term itself can easily lead to direct connection with "computing" or "computer" in a restricted sense. In this editorial, we build on existing research about computational thinking to discuss it as a multi-faceted theoretical nature. We further present computational thinking, as a model of thinking, that is important not only in computer science and mathematics, but also in other disciplines of STEM and integrated STEM education broadly.

Minority research and training (MRT) programs have been used across U.S. colleges and universities as a method to close the educational achievement gap and generate a highly skilled and diverse workforce. Previous studies have improved our understanding of the need to diversify the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the various interventions that have been developed to support these efforts. However, there is still little evidence about what strategies are most effective in promoting interest, continuation, and matriculation into STEM graduate programs among underrepresented groups. The study herein utilized a case study design with a mixed methods approach to evaluate the program impacts and outcomes of an MRT program at a research-intensive institution in the southern part of the U.S., and for program replication. This evaluation study examines the types of activities and services provided, the measurable outcomes of those activities and services, the resources used to deliver the services, the practical problems encountered, and the ways in which problems were resolved.