Research on Interventions that Encourage Minorities to Pursue Science Careers

1. Research on Interventions that Encourage Minorities to Pursue Science Careers Yolanda S. George, Deputy Director, Education Programs AAAS

2. 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?

3. 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

5. 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 persistence…in educational and career paths…and satisfaction in a particular job. • Drivers of educational and career choices – (a) Personal Interest, (b) Family Expectation and (c) Other External Factors

6. 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 barriers—social, financial, environmental • Person input (race, gender, etc)

7. 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 student’s belief in their ability to perform • Instilling realistic outcome expectations • Managing environmental barriers and building effective support systems

8. 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

9. 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

10. http://ehrweb.aaas.org/sciMentoring/

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. What Workforce Skills STEM Students Should Know & Understand • Abstracts/posters • Oral presentations • Literature reviews • Formulate research questions • Select appropriate methods • Statistical/computational/quantitative skills • Prepare/review papers • The patent process • Intellectual property • Ethics • Best practices in teaching • Setting up/managing a lab • Budgets/Grant-writing • Science policy

14. 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.

16. Michael Nettles and Catherine Millet, Educational Testing ServiceThree Magic Letters: Getting to the PhD Being a research assistant increases • Student’s 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

18. Completion Data:“Big 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

19. Differences in Minority and Majority PhD Completion Source: Council of Graduate Schools, Ph.D Completion Project Data Council of Graduate Schools www.cgsnet.org

20. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. Implications for Institutional Leaders • Diversity conscious policies and practices • Building a data collection infrastructure • Supporting departmental efforts