The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program

NSF
NSF
  • Home
  • The Program
    • NSF Noyce Program Directors
    • NSF Noyce Program Solicitation
    • Consider Becoming an NSF Noyce Principal Investigator
    • Become a Noyce Scholar or Teacher Leader
      • Noyce Scholar Profiles
      • Noyce Alumni Profiles
    • Voices From the Field Videos
  • Project Locator
    • Select from Map
    • Advanced Search
    • Submit Information
  • In the News
    • In the News
  • Meetings
    • 2022 Noyce Summit
    • 2021 Noyce Summer Events
    • 2020 Virtual Noyce Summit
    • Archived Noyce Summit Materials
    • Noyce Regional Meetings
  • Resources
    • Noyce Track 4 Research Book
    • Proposal Preparation Toolkit
    • Noyce Project Videos
    • Noyce Summit Abstract Catalogs
    • Reports
    • Toolkits
    • ARISE Research Community
  • Contact

Surveying for Success: Academic Attitudes of Undergraduate STEM Majors

  • Year 2019
  • NSF Noyce Award # 1439896
  • First Name Mary
  • Last Name Urquhart
  • Discipline Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, Math, Physics
  • Presenters

    Mary Urquhart, The University of Texas at Dallas, urquhart@utdallas.edu

Need

(a) Retaining undergraduate students in our universities and as STEM majors is important for any UTeach program. (b) Of particular concern are high performing STEM majors (who serve as our recruiting pool for STEM teaching) who may change majors or leave the university when they encounter academic difficulties. (c) This is both university-specific work and potentially relevant on the topic of mindset where most work has been done at the K-12 level.

Goals

One goal of the UTeach Dallas Noyce program is to determine if fixed mindset, may be a cause of loss of STEM majors from the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) at the University of Texas at Dallas. Of particular concern for this study are students who may encounter their first academic difficulties in their NSM courses at the university and thus be at risk for losing self-identification as a STEM capable student.

Approach

We created and deployed an Academic Attitudes of Undergraduates survey for the mandatory NSM freshmen seminar class.

Outcomes

(a) In fall 2017, 341 out of ~700 freshmen completed the entire survey in fall 2017. Our main findings are that survey respondents are primarily of an undetermined mindset. However, we did find skews towards fixed mindset in some sub-populations, including self-identified pre-service teachers. (b) The study results are the key deliverables to date. (c) Further analysis including of the 2018 data set, continued deployment of the survey, refinement of the instrument, and potential expansion of the work beyond the school of NSM.

Broader Impacts

(a) This work is intented to inform instructors within the school of NSM to assist in retention of science and mathematics majors, including pre-service STEM teachers. (b) This work is preliminary, but may be applicable to a broader population beyond one school and one year. Further study is needed. (c) Our next steps are to continue to the work, focus more heavily on the pre-service teacher population, and to seek funding for a mixed methods approach.

What’s New

  • 2022 Noyce Summit
  • Noyce by the Numbers: 20 Years of Noyce
  • Proposal Preparation Webinars
  • Frequently Asked Questions for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program
  • Become a Noyce Scholar or Teacher Leader
  • Consider Becoming an NSF Noyce Principal Investigator
  • Noyce Alumni: Where Are They Now?

Check out our ARISE website for research & opportunities!

Checking In

NSF

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant Numbers DUE-2041597 and DUE-1548986. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

AAAS

The World's Largest General Scientific Society

  • About Noyce Program
  • AAAS ISEED
  • Subscribe to ARISE
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
© 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science