Research on Interventions that Encourage Minorities to Pursue Science Careers

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Research on Interventions that Encourage
Minorities to Pursue Science Careers

• Yolanda S. George,
• Deputy Director, Education Programs
• AAAS

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In 2005, how many doctorates in biological
sciences were awarded to

• All U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents?
• American Indians?
• Black?
• Mexican Americans?
• Puerto Ricans?
• Hispanics?
• Asianss?

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In 2005, how many doctorates in biological
sciences were awarded to

• All U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents? 4,141
• American Indians? 3
• Black? 142
• Mexican Americans? 68
• Puerto Ricans? 53
• Hispanics? 207
• Asians? 409

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Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT)Robert
Lent, University of Maryland College Park

• Integrative theoretical framework that explores
  the psychological and social factors that
  produces personal interest and lead to choices
  related to education and careers
• Also concerned with the network of factors that
  affect performance and persistencein educational
  and career pathsand satisfaction in a particular
  job.
• Drivers of educational and career choices (a)
  Personal Interest, (b) Family Expectation and
  (c) Other External Factors

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SCCT is based on Self-efficacy people beliefs
about their ability to perform specific behaviors
or action (Albert Bandura, Stanford)

• Four Sources
• Prior performance (mastery or failure)
• Observation of others (experiences or models)
• Social messages (encourage or discourages)
• Physiological or affective reaction (test
  anxiety)
• Other Factors
• Expectations surrounding particular outcomes
• Goals that motivate people to produce a
  particular outcome
• Other contextual factors and barrierssocial,
  financial, environmental
• Person input (race, gender, etc)

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SCCT Implications for Intervention Program
Strategies

• Getting students to rethink areas that they might
  be able to do well at but have prematurely
  foreclosed
• Clarifying career goals
• Supporting career goals
• Strengthening self-efficacy or students belief
  in their ability to perform
• Instilling realistic outcome expectations
• Managing environmental barriers and building
  effective support systems

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Social Identity and Stereotype ThreatClaude
Steele, Stanford University

• Stereotype threat arises when a person is in a
  situation where negative stereotype applies
• Each individual has multiple identities (age,
  race/ethnicity, sex, religion)
• Cues in the environment that accentuate or lessen
  threats
• Schools and other environments are different for
  people with different identities
• If the cues changes, performance changes

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Social Identity and Stereotype Threat
Implications for Intervention Programs

• Cues from leadership, faculty, and others
• Critical mass of people with a certain identity
• Discussions about race, intelligence, etc

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http//ehrweb.aaas.org/sciMentoring/
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What do we know from the STEM mentoring
literature?

• STEM career mentoring appears to be more
  prevalent in after-school programs for middle and
  high school students.
• The level of systematic STEM career and workforce
  mentoring is not high in undergraduate research
  programs, or during the higher education years,
  or in postdoctoral fellowship programs.
• Support networks for women (including students)
  in STEM areas in academia, industry, and
  government are useful in helping family/career
  balance, negotiating organizational or
  departmental challenges, and in career
  advancement.

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What type of STEM mentoring research is needed?

• More research is needed on cross-gender and
  cross-racial STEM mentoring and mentoring of
  disabled persons in STEM disciplines.
• More STEM mentoring research linked to outcome
  measures is needed, such as entry into STEM
  college majors, time-to-degrees at all degree
  levels, types of college and university degrees
  earned, entry into STEM graduate majors, entry
  into STEM careers by sectors, and advancements in
  the STEM workforce.
• More STEM mentoring studies that follow cohorts
  of students or scientists and engineers are
  needed.

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What Workforce Skills STEM Students Should Know
Understand

• The patent process
• Intellectual property
• Ethics
• Best practices in teaching
• Setting up/managing a lab
• Budgets/Grant-writing
• Science policy

• Abstracts/posters
• Oral presentations
• Literature reviews
• Formulate research questions
• Select appropriate methods
• Statistical/computational/quantitative skills
• Prepare/review papers

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Recommendations to STEM departments include

• Appoint a departmental mentoring committee to
  develop and implement a departmental mentoring
  plan with a particular emphasis on providing
  students with career information and
  opportunities to develop workforce skills
• Provide mentor training for faculty
• Provide protégé training for students
• Provide online mentoring resources or links to
  resources for faculty and students and,
• Assess and provide incentives for high quality
  faculty mentoring.

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Michael Nettles and Catherine Millet, Educational
Testing ServiceThree Magic Letters Getting to
the PhD

• Being a research assistant increases
• Students interaction with faculty, faculty
  advisers, and peers
• Their presenting papers and publishing articles
• Overall research productivity
• Having a Mentor influences
• Social interaction between student and faculty
• Scholarly publishing
• Degree completion and time to degree
• Research Productivity
• Over half of the students surveyed had presented
  a paper at a conference, published a book
  chapter, etc. but lower for African American
  students

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Completion DataBig Picture Findings have
Policy Implications

• Nationally, Ph.D. completion probably higher than
  commonly thought (approx. 57 vs. 50), but field
  differences create policy challenges
• Some underrepresented groups are taking longer to
  complete than before, but not necessarily
  completing at lower rates
• Overall differences in minority/majority
  completion rates are observable, but field
  differences in minority/majority completion rates
  are pronounced

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Differences in Minority and Majority PhD
Completion
Source Council of Graduate Schools, Ph.D
Completion Project Data
Council of Graduate Schools


www.cgsnet.org
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Completion Rates and Timing by Race/Ethnicity and
Broad Field
Source Council of Graduate Schools, Ph.D
Completion Project Data
Council of Graduate Schools


www.cgsnet.org
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Other Research Areas

• Effectiveness of undergraduate research in
  steering undergraduates toward graduate school
• Effectiveness of teaching and curriculum
  (motivation, persistence, and problem solving
  ability)
• Undergraduate and graduate institution
  transformation

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Summary of Implications of Research for
Intervention Programs

• Examine faculty mentoring practice --- more of a
  focus on (a) research productivity, (b)
  strengthening students belief in their ability
  to perform, (c) helping them to continually
  clarify career goals and path
• Examine the effectiveness of undergraduate
  research programs
• Examine curriculum and teaching practices
• Academic preparation and support for students
  in core courses
• Course articulation with knowledge and skills
  needed during the graduate school years

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Implications for Departments and Labs

• Social Integration (Cues, environmental barriers)
• Intellectual Integrations
• Early detection of switchers and leavers
• Attention to financial aid and debt burden
• Attention to family/work balance
• Data collection and evidence that programs and
  practices are working
• Faculty professional development as related to
  mentoring, research on interventions, diversity,
  and data collection

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Implications for Institutional Leaders

• Diversity conscious policies and practices
• Building a data collection infrastructure
• Supporting departmental efforts

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