Spring 2024
Location
Barbara Massey Room 414
Start Date
7-5-2024 10:30 AM
End Date
7-5-2024 11:00 AM
Description
In the sciences and mathematics, having a strong STEM-related skillset and personal STEM identity are both important for fostering long-term persistence in STEM-related vocational fields. Science and math courses are routinely designed to build the skillset of students but creating a positive STEM identity is more difficult, particularly for underrepresented groups. Across the semester of a pilot neuroscience course, students engaged in daily and semester-long exercises in learning about and practicing advocacy as a way to build positive identities in science. At the beginning and end of the semester, students took the Persistence in the Sciences (PITS) survey, measuring student beliefs about science ownership, identity, values, and community networking. Results showed that by the end of the semester, students had improved scores on measures related to ownership and positive emotions towards science and personal science identity, increases not seen in a similar-level control class. Although these results were specific to a single neuroscience class, they are generalizable to any discipline across campus. This workshop will aim at brainstorming how to build advocacy exercises into our curricula to enhance discipline ownership and identity in our students.
Recommended Citation
Schoenfeld, Timothy, "Using Advocacy Exercises to Promote Academic Identity and Ownership" (2024). Faculty Scholarship Symposium. 6.
https://repository.belmont.edu/fac_schol/Spring_2024/Spring_2024/6
Using Advocacy Exercises to Promote Academic Identity and Ownership
Barbara Massey Room 414
In the sciences and mathematics, having a strong STEM-related skillset and personal STEM identity are both important for fostering long-term persistence in STEM-related vocational fields. Science and math courses are routinely designed to build the skillset of students but creating a positive STEM identity is more difficult, particularly for underrepresented groups. Across the semester of a pilot neuroscience course, students engaged in daily and semester-long exercises in learning about and practicing advocacy as a way to build positive identities in science. At the beginning and end of the semester, students took the Persistence in the Sciences (PITS) survey, measuring student beliefs about science ownership, identity, values, and community networking. Results showed that by the end of the semester, students had improved scores on measures related to ownership and positive emotions towards science and personal science identity, increases not seen in a similar-level control class. Although these results were specific to a single neuroscience class, they are generalizable to any discipline across campus. This workshop will aim at brainstorming how to build advocacy exercises into our curricula to enhance discipline ownership and identity in our students.
