NSF Award
2013316
This project aims to serve the national interest by improving the educational experiences in large entry-level STEM courses. In these courses, many students feel uncomfortable asking questions. This reluctance is caused by issues such as a lack of confidence, fear of looking foolish, and discomfort with interrupting. The reluctance to ask questions in class is more pronounced for students traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. Accordingly, mitigating these classroom climate factors is considered critical to decreasing STEM college student attrition. A promising approach to increase student inquiry in large classes is to use in-class anonymous backchannels as a social layer to improve student classroom engagement. Backchannels are digital conversations, such as ?chat,? that occur during a class session and allow students to anonymously post questions. There is evidence that the use of a backchannel increases the frequency of questions posed and the range of students participating in classroom interactions. Thus far, however, the research has not connected the use of backchannels in classes to the broader goal of maintaining student STEM persistence. This research will obtain information about the effectiveness of backchannels as a teaching technique to improve STEM education for undergraduate students, determine whether the use of backchannels increases student STEM identity and persistence, and determine whether backchannel use differs for students traditionally underrepresented in STEM disciplines. Research will be conducted in coordination with a consortium of eleven universities that are working to improve foundational STEM courses through development of equitable and inclusive STEM curricula and teaching practices. Further dissemination will occur via a higher education video-platform company that can share lessons learned by the project with their client institutions.<br/> <br/>The proposed research is grounded in existing educational frameworks and is based on a model that includes potential mediators between backchannel availability and its influence on STEM identity and persistence. The mediators are based on Expectancy-Value Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and extensive studies of belonging, classroom questioning, and help seeking. Expectancy-Value Theory focuses on student efficacy, values, and the personal and social cost of asking questions, and is relevant to recent studies in the STEM education literature. Self-Determination Theory mediators are the basic needs of belonging and autonomy, the extent to which students feel that they belong to the class as well as the STEM discipline, and are especially important for underrepresented student populations. The extensive literature on student questioning and help seeking is critical since it has yet to be incorporated into backchannel research. This research will compare students? perceived help-seeking threat versus the perceived benefits of asking questions. Mediators will be tested using multi-level and multi-group analyses and include statistical controls for non-backchannel between-class differences (e.g., class size). The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.<br/><br/>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.
