Overview

Improving Undergraduate STEM Education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (IUSE HSI)-- Institutional Transformation Project: Fostering Communities of Practice through Research and Peer Mentoring

With support from the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this project aims to develop a national model for STEM education through development of a “Scholars' Academy,” a cohort-based program to support undergraduate students with peer mentoring, undergraduate research opportunities, and additional support, designed to improve undergraduate success, particularly for Hispanic students. The project will address the problem that Hispanic STEM students persist at a lower rate than their non-Hispanic peers. Communities of Practice – groups of people who share a common concern and work and learn together – will be developed among students, faculty, and administrators to ensure longer term retention of students and create institutional transformation through sustaining pedagogical best practices. Through this project, Kean will increase the number of faculty engaging in research with undergraduates and who are trained in culturally responsive mentoring. These practices are expected to increase student retention, job readiness, and improve sense of belonging. 

Key to this Scholars' Academy will be three CoPs fostered as part of the project activities. To foster these communities, activities will be implemented based on smaller programs already piloted in two academic units at Kean. (1) To build a community of student scholars, and meet the needs of students during critical attrition points, a STEM major-specific version of our first-year seminar course, “Transition to Kean” will be used. First- and second-year courses with high D, F, and withdrawal (DFW) rates will be targeted for SI using peer-mentoring and peer-led team learning. (2) Students will engage in small faculty-led research teams using the Computing Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institutions’ (CAHSI) Affinity Research Group (ARG) model, with progress over multiple years and mentoring by senior-level students. (3) Signature practices from CAHSI and Kean’s Center for Teaching and Learning to provide a variety of faculty professional-development experiences on inclusive practices and advising enhancement will result in an institutional and transformation CoP (I&T-CoP) that includes a team of faculty and administrators with backgrounds in disciplinary-based education research, faculty-development research, and higher education research. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs are supported by this program