2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

ECR: Facilitating change in undergraduate STEM: A multidisciplinary, multimethod metasynthesis mapping a decade of growth

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

The aim of this NSF ECR project is to perform an extensive multi-method metasynthesis of literature published between 2011 and 2023 on strategies for enhancing undergraduate STEM instruction. Specifically, we update the previous review and examine the change strategies implemented after a decade of research. We present an updated methodology with the innovative application of machine learning methods to select and analyze articles. From initially determined potentially relevant articles (n = 9,262) from keyword search, 253 articles were included after the title and abstract and full-text screening. Subsequently, we conducted both human qualitative coding and quantitative machine learning analyses to examine the themes of the included articles. Preliminary findings from the qualitatively coding showed that most articles implemented a dissemination change strategy focusing on telling or teaching individuals about new teaching practices; the predominant target for disseminating pedagogy was individual faculty and developing reflective teachers-focused strategies, whereas departments and institutions tended to be the target for developing a policy or a shared vision. Additionally, preliminary findings from the quantitative machine-learning clustering analyses showed groupings related to specific science disciplines (e.g. engineering, chemistry). Next steps of the project are discussed.

Authors

Dr. Ying Wang FHI 360 [biography]

Ying Wang is an education researcher in the U.S. Education at FHI 360, a nonprofit human development organization. Formerly, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology since Fall 2021. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University and her Master of Education at Temple University. Ying is an educational psychologist who applies educational psychology science in STEM educational contexts.
Emily Bolger
Rachel L Renbarger
Taylor Boyd Western Michigan University
Prof. Noah D Finkelstein http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4783-4964 University of Colorado Boulder [biography]

Noah Finkelstein is a Professor and Vice Chair in the department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. He conducts research is in physics education, specifically studying the conditions that support students' identities, engagement and outcomes in physics - developing models of context. In parallel, he conducts research on how educational transformations get taken up, spread, and sustained. He is a PI in the Physics Education Research (PER) group and was founding co-director of CU's Center for STEM Learning. He co-directs the national Network of STEM Education Centers, is building the STEM DBER-Alliance, and coalitions advancing undergraduate education transformation. He is involved in education policy serving on many national boards, sits on a National Academies' STEM education roundtable, is a Trustee of the Higher Learning Commission, is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Presidential Teaching Scholar and the inaugural Timmerhaus Teaching Ambassador for the University of Colorado system.
Dr. Charles Henderson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0334-6739 Western Michigan University [biography]

Charles Henderson is a Professor at Western Michigan University (WMU), with a joint appointment between the Physics Department and the WMU Mallinson Institute for Science Education. He is the Director of the Mallinson Institute and co-Founder and co-Direc
Andrea L Beach Western Michigan University
Scott P. Simkins North Carolina A&T State University [biography]

Scott P. Simkins is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He conducts research in economic education, emphasizing the use and diffusion of evidence-based teaching practices within economics and across disciplines.
Marcos Caballero

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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