2007 — 2011 |
Levy, Sheri Lobel, Marci (co-PI) [⬀] London-Thompson, Bonita |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Gse/Res - Advancing Women in Science: Building Engagement Through Academic Transitions
Intellectual Merit: This project examines gender differences in academic and social engagement that are postulated to explain the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. An integrative Academic and Social Engagement (ASE) Model in STEM career pursuits based upon established theory and innovative methods from social, developmental, and health psychology and education is tested. The ASE Model defines engagement by a range of career, academic, social and psychological outcomes (e.g., sense of belonging in STEM, motivation to pursue a STEM career, and decisions to acquire STEM graduate training ) that are essential not only for career achievement but also for sustained investment and life and career satisfaction. According to the ASE Model, there are two routes to engagement: (1) developing and integrating a STEM identity into one's self-concept, which allows one to view a STEM career as both desirable and attainable and (2) utilizing academic, social, and psychological coping resources that provide necessary information, tangible assistance, and social support to help navigate the path to engagement despite impediments. Further, the ASE Model identifies situational and individual factors that impede engagement, such as perceptions of gender bias in STEM environments and low competence beliefs that undermine confidence and focus. A critical component of the ASE Model is its developmental focus, namely the effect of academic and life transitions on the salience and influence of each facilitator and impediment to engagement.
Participants in the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program, an established program at Stony Brook University founded with prior NSF funding, serve as a target group for testing the ASE Model. The WISE program supports a select group of female STEM majors by providing them with experiences--primarily in their first year of college--likely to promote a STEM identity and provide coping resources. WISE women are compared to non-WISE, STEM women and STEM men who enter the university in the same year and also to another cohort of WISE women. These groups are studied using traditional longitudinal methods that have been used in prior research as well as newer, state-of-the-art experience sampling methods (namely, daily and weekly diary methodologies) that have not been used in prior research on women's pursuit of STEM careers. These methods include the examination of factors contributing to and impeding engagement between groups (e.g., men versus women), within groups (e.g., individual differences between women), and over time during three important transitions: the start of college, the beginning of intensive research experiences, and the period of decision-making about whether to pursue graduate school in a STEM field. Further, two evidence-based interventions aimed at promoting engagement in STEM fields by enhancing gender and STEM identity integration and providing needed coping resources are tested; their impact on WISE women who receive the intervention will be compared to the other three groups.
Broader Impacts: The proposed intervention studies give WISE participants an expanded experience in STEM, provide focused mentoring to foster their intellectual and career development, and increase their motivation to work in and seek careers in STEM fields. The project team includes a diverse group of young scholars (predominantly female graduate and undergraduate students, with particular recruitment from ethnic groups underrepresented in science) who will be mentored in research relevant to psychology, gender studies, and related disciplines. Through the proposed project, new infrastructures are created including an inter-disciplinary Advisory Board, once-a-semester discussion series on women in STEM careers, a yearly presentation to be given at an area high school, and a project website. Findings from the proposed research will be communicated in professional journals and at conferences that reach scholars in education, gender studies, developmental, health, and social psychology as well as college administrators, academic counselors, STEM scholars, and high school teachers.
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0.96 |
2010 — 2014 |
Levy, Sheri Lobel, Marci (co-PI) [⬀] London-Thompson, Bonita |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Gse/Res Advancing Women in Stem: Building Engagement Through Later Academic and Work Transitions
Intellectual Merit: This project builds on a previously funding NSF award (0733918) to further test a new theoretical model, the Academic and Social Engagement (ASE) Model, that highlights two psychosocial factors that contribute to women's STEM engagement at different phases during the progression through STEM education and career development: 1) developing and integrating a STEM identity into one's self-concept, and 2) identifying and using social, academic, workplace, and psychological coping resources that provide information, tangible assistance, and social support to facilitate engagement despite impediments. There are at least five critical phases en route to the STEM profession: 1) beginning of undergraduate STEM education; 2) advanced undergraduate STEM education; 3) entry into STEM graduate education and the STEM workforce; 4) master's and doctoral level STEM education and training; and 5) movement into the advanced STEM workforce. Using daily, weekly, and cross-sectional surveys with 400+ STEM undergraduates to date, the ASE model has been tested in the two early phases and consistent with the model, has generated compelling evidence for the importance of these two key factors in fostering STEM engagement. This second stage project will examine the later phases in the transition to a STEM career. Using experience sampling methods (ESM) comprising survey instruments administered daily, weekly, bi-monthly, and cross-sectionally, the proposed project will include two groups of participants: students in the previous project as they progress into the next phases of STEM career attainment (entry into STEM graduate education and/or workforce), and new cohorts of incoming graduate students as they enter STEM graduate education, master's and doctoral level STEM education and training, and move into the advanced STEM workforce. Using daily, weekly, and bi-monthly diaries at targeted points of stress and challenge at each phase (e.g., during comprehensive examinations, dissertation preparation), the research will examine whether identity integration and coping resources predict greater STEM engagement despite the presence of impeding factors for STEM women and comparison groups of STEM men. Broader Impacts: Results from this project may be used as an empirical foundation for the development of interventions that target identity integration and coping resources to promote the engagement, success, and retention of women in STEM fields at multiple levels of training and work. The project team includes a diverse group of predominantly female graduate and undergraduate students from ethnic groups underrepresented in science who will be mentored in research relevant to psychology, gender studies, and related disciplines. Findings will be communicated in professional journals and at conferences that reach scholars in education, gender studies, developmental, health, and social psychology as well as college administrators, academic counselors, STEM scholars, and high school teachers. Dissemination will also be through an existing project website and in widely distributed news sources.
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0.96 |
2015 — 2018 |
Levy, Sheri Maung, Nina London-Thompson, Bonita Ferguson, David (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Fostering (Stem) Identity Through the Transition (Fit) to College Among Underrepresented Students
The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority (URM) populations to successfully complete high quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The Broadening Participation Research (BPR) funding opportunity provides three-year support to enhance the understanding of the underlying issues affecting the differential participation and success rates of students from underrepresented groups in STEM. Using the Fostering Identity through Transitions (FIT) model, researchers at Stony Brook University (SBU) will study cohorts of STEM and non-STEM majors to test the FIT model with STEM programs, such as the SUNY LSAMP program, that seem likely to boost STEM identity by providing STEM skills training, research mentoring, and community building opportunities that parallel the FIT model components. The research fills important scientific knowledge gaps in broadening participation of underrepresented groups in STEM by conducting an in-depth theory-driven examination of the needed experiences that lead to engagement, retention, and overall success versus withdrawal among URM and non-URM students particularly during the first two years of college matriculation.
The aim of the three-year study is to test whether the FIT model can be used to predict STEM success outcomes among students from historically underrepresented populations. A quantitative and qualitative data intensive methodological approach of "experience sampling" will be employed to capture pivotal academic and social experiences that lead to college success during critcal first and second year transition. An interdisciplinary advisory board will provide oversight of the project. Project results will be disseminated broadly via the institution's website, publishing of scholarly articles, conference presentations, and among institutional administrators.
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0.96 |