Exploring Student Interactions in Small Groups in Belonging-Oriented Undergraduate Mathematics Classrooms

The implementation of active learning approaches in STEM undergraduate courses has significantly increased over the past few decades. Classrooms traditionally dominated by lectures have been reworked into environments where students actively participate in discussions, problem-solving, group work, and hands-on projects. Improvement in students' overall academic achievement in these environments has consistently been reported, but researchers have found that students who identify as members of non-dominant identity groups encounter barriers that significantly limit their participation and impact their learning experiences in these courses.

Understanding these obstacles and how these students interact with peers and instructors in small-group settings is crucial for developing more inclusive and effective educational practices. Despite this need, no rigorous studies have yet examined these interactions in undergraduate mathematics classrooms. Addressing this research gap is crucial for the STEM curriculum, considering the sustained underrepresentation of non-dominant identity groups, the pivotal role these courses play in the STEM pipeline, and their strong impact on student retention in STEM disciplines.

This project will use surveys, interviews, and classroom observations to conduct a thorough analysis of the interactions among students working in small groups in undergraduate mathematics classrooms. This analysis will provide foundational knowledge about the relationship between active learning instruction and equitable and inclusive learning environments.

The primary goal of the research is to explore the experience of students from non-dominant identity groups, and instructors during group activities in these classrooms; closely analyzing their interactions, positional identities, and learning opportunities (OtLs) within groups. The project team will work with instructors who incorporate teaching practices focused on fostering belonging in the context of teaching semester-long introductory undergraduate mathematics courses.

Specifically, the research will examine the extent to which moving into more central roles of participation is available to students within small-group social ecologies, carefully attending to the influence of classroom norms and belonging-oriented instruction on these participation shifts. The analysis will center on group interactions, student positional identities, and OtLs before, during, and after the participation of instructors in coaching and professional learning opportunities focused on social ecologies and promoting students’ sense of belonging in mathematics.

The research will be conducted at two institutions with contrasting student demographics (minority-serving vs predominantly-white), both of which have had a sustained commitment to active learning in introductory mathematics. The use of two sites will enable the exploration of how OtLs may vary among students across multiple nondominant identity groups in different institutional contexts with established instructional practices.

The project will aim to capture comprehensive rich data on students' and instructors’ perceptions of group interactions through surveys, interviews, and classroom observations centered on small groups involving students from non-dominant identity groups. The project will seek to provide four major contributions to STEM education research. First, is to advance foundational knowledge about the relationship between active learning instructional approaches and equitable and inclusive learning environments.

Second, is to broaden explanatory knowledge about students’ OTLs and experiences of belonging in active learning undergraduate mathematics classrooms. Third, is to increase understanding of how sociohistorical and socio-mathematical classroom norms are experienced by students who identify as members of non-dominant identity groups in mathematics, and how those experiences are associated with OtLs.

Fourth, and finally, is to extend core understanding of instructional practices that support equitable and inclusive learning environments in undergraduate mathematics classes. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.

Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.

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.