Broadening Participation Research Project: Effects of Integrating Learning-Strategy Instruction within Math Courses on Student Math Mindset, Self-Regulated Learning and Performance

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) through Broadening Participation Research (BPR) in STEM Education projects supports the development, implementation, and study of new theory-driven models and innovations related to the participation and success of underrepresented groups in STEM undergraduate education. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, as well as improve the recruitment, retention, and success of underrepresented groups in STEM education and the workforce.

The project at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University seeks enhance the quality of STEM education for undergraduate students enrolled in existing math courses by integrating evidence-based cognitive, metacognitive and management learning strategies. The project aims to serve as a model for understanding the interrelationships between four constructs (learning strategies, math mindset, self-regulated learning, and performance) while accounting for the students’ racial, gender and math identity.

The project will use a repeated measures between-subjects design and a mixed-methods approach to examine four research questions: (1) Does integrating learning-strategy instruction within gate-keeper math courses promote math growth mindset among underrepresented minority (URM) students? (2) Does integrating learning-strategy instruction within gate-keeper math courses promote self-regulated learning (SRL) among URM students? (3) What is the nature of association between students’ math growth mindset and SRL? and (4) Does learning-strategy instruction, math growth mindset, and SRL predict students’ performance in gate-keeper math courses? The researchers will incorporate several research-based learning strategies into five gate-keeper math courses and collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data on the four main constructs, students’ identity, and other covariates in control and treatment sections of these math courses to answer the above questions.

The quantitative analyses will include Path Analysis, Pearson correlations, two-sample hypothesis tests and descriptive statistics. The qualitative analyses will help the researchers to better contextualize and interpret the quantitative results. The project is expected to foster the development of math growth mindset and SRL among URM students, improve students’ experience and performance in gate-keeper math courses, improve students’ retention and graduation rates in STEM, and enhance the capabilities of math faculty to conduct discipline-based educational research and scholarly teaching.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.