International Journal of Stem Education最新文献

{"title":"Undergraduates’ reactions to errors mediates the association between growth mindset and study strategies","authors":"Anastasia Chouvalova, Anisha S. Navlekar, Devin J. Mills, Mikayla Adams, Sami Daye, Fatima De Anda, Lisa B. Limeri","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00485-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00485-4","url":null,"abstract":"Students employ a variety of study strategies to learn and master content in their courses. Strategies vary widely in their effectiveness for promoting deep, long-term learning, yet most students use ineffective strategies frequently. Efforts to educate students about effective study strategies have revealed that knowledge about effective strategies is by itself insufficient for encouraging widespread and lasting changes. An important next step is to uncover factors that influence the decisions students make about study strategy use. We explored the association between beliefs about intelligence (mindset, universality, and brilliance) and study strategies. The most effective study strategies are error-prone, and beliefs about intelligence carry implications for whether errors are a normal and even beneficial part of the learning process (e.g., growth mindset) or signs of insufficient intelligence (e.g., fixed mindset). Therefore, we hypothesized that beliefs about and reactions to errors would mediate a relationship between beliefs about intelligence and study strategies. We tested this hypothesis by surveying 345 undergraduates enrolled in an introductory biology class at a public, research-active university in northwestern United States. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the internal structure of all measures functioned as expected in our sample. We fit a structural equation model to evaluate our hypothesized model. We found that mindset, but not universality nor brilliance, predicts variance in both beliefs about errors and reactions to errors. In turn, adaptive reactions to errors (but not beliefs about errors) are associated with the use of highly effective study strategies and spacing study sessions. There was a significant indirect relationship between growth mindset and spacing of study sessions. Our results provide evidence for a mechanism explaining the association between students’ mindset beliefs and academic outcomes: believing that intelligence is improvable is associated with more adaptive reactions to making errors, which correlates with choosing more error-prone and therefore more effective study strategies. Future interventions aimed at improving students’ study strategies may be more effective if they simultaneously target reacting adaptively to errors and emphasize that intelligence is improvable.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141190119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bridging borders: assessing the impact of semester-long study abroad programs on intercultural competence development in undergraduate engineering students","authors":"Aparajita Jaiswal, Muna Sapkota, Kris Acheson","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00483-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00483-6","url":null,"abstract":"Working and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds have become common in Engineering. Research has indicated that engineering graduates face challenges while working with a diverse workforce. Therefore, it is vital for higher education institutions to help engineering students develop intercultural competence skills by engaging them in intercultural learning activities. This study explores the impact of a semester-long study abroad program and its new curriculum on the intercultural learning gains of undergraduate engineering students. The study used a mixed methods design to assess the intercultural learning gains of the students enrolled in a study abroad program. The results of the study indicated that overall, as a group, students demonstrated significant gains in their Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) scores from the pre- to post-test. Moreover, hierarchical clustering was conducted to group students into three clusters based on their IDI scores. The results of the clustering helped us to understand the differential growth of students from their pre- to post-test. Based on clustering students were grouped into high, moderate and low intercultural learning clusters. Further inductive thematic analysis was conducted to understand the depth of intercultural awareness of the students in general and discipline specific for each cluster. The results of the thematic analysis revealed that students in cluster 1 showed a deeper understanding of cultural differences, mindfulness, and openness while interacting with people from other cultures, whereas the students in clusters 2 and 3 showed moderate to superficial level of intercultural awareness. The implication of the study extends to both practice and theory. From the practice perspective, the study discusses the need for creating intentionally structured study abroad programs that encourage students to reflect on their intercultural experiences and internalize takeaways. From the theory perspective, the study contributes to the Intercultural Development Continuum model, as it emphasizes the importance of meaningful gains in intercultural competence. The study also suggests strategies to improve the intercultural learning experiences of students that could help them move towards more intercultural mindsets.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141149779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When perceived similarity overrides demographic similarity: examining influences on STEM students’ developmental mentor networks","authors":"Rachelle Pedersen, Anna Woodcock, P. Wesley Schultz, Paul R. Hernandez","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00480-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00480-9","url":null,"abstract":"While dyadic faculty–mentored relationship research currently saturates the mentoring literature, recent developments suggest the need for a broader consideration of a student's mentor network. Research taking a network approach may provide deeper insights into the formation and benefits of mentorship for undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Utilizing Developmental Mentor Network Theory and ego-centric social network analysis, this pre-registered study evaluates how the characteristics of mentees and mentors relate to both the content of support and structure of mentor networks in a large sample of White and Hispanic/Latino(a) STEM undergraduates across 12 universities. Results were nuanced but showed that perceived psychological similarity with their mentor(s) predicted both dyadic and network average levels of mentor support (i.e., psychosocial, career, role modeling) and relational satisfaction. Furthermore, results point to homophily and engagement in undergraduate research effects on mentor network structures. These findings highlight the importance of using a network approach to deepen our understanding of the factors (e.g., psychological similarity) that may influence the formation and maintenance of robust and diverse supportive mentoring networks.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140571679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Science teacher identity research: a scoping literature review","authors":"Yanfang Zhai, Jennifer Tripp, Xiufeng Liu","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00481-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00481-8","url":null,"abstract":"Science teacher identity significantly influences teacher professional development, practices, and attitudes, which in turn impacts student learning outcomes. With an increased number of studies on science teacher identity over the past two decades, there is a need for a scoping literature review that holistically maps the current state of science teacher identity research and identifies future research directions. This scoping literature review identified 48 empirical articles on science teacher identity, published from 2000 to 2023, in peer-reviewed journals and examined the studies’ (a) characteristics; (b) theoretical frameworks on identity; (c) definitions of science teacher identity; and (d) major findings. Specifically, there is a need for precise conceptualizations and definitions of science teacher identity; this clarity will facilitate valid, reliable, and fair instruments to capture the relatively stable facets of science teacher identity at a given moment in a given context in order to longitudinally track science teacher identity development. This scoping review identifies both progress and gaps in the current literature and future directions for synergistic, cross-cultural international research on science teacher identity.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140571530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond performance, competence, and recognition: forging a science researcher identity in the context of research training","authors":"Mariel A. Pfeifer, C. J. Zajic, Jared M. Isaacs, Olivia A. Erickson, Erin L. Dolan","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00479-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00479-2","url":null,"abstract":"Studying science identity has been useful for understanding students’ continuation in science-related education and career paths. Yet knowledge and theory related to science identity among students on the path to becoming a professional science researcher, such as students engaged in research at the undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, and graduate level, is still developing. It is not yet clear from existing science identity theory how particular science contexts, such as research training experiences, influence students’ science identities. Here we leverage existing science identity and professional identity theories to investigate how research training shapes science identity. We conducted a qualitative investigation of 30 early career researchers—undergraduates, postbaccalaureates, and doctoral students in a variety of natural science fields—to characterize how they recognized themselves as science researchers. Early career researchers (ECRs) recognized themselves as either science students or science researchers, which they distinguished from being a career researcher. ECRs made judgments, which we refer to as “science identity assessments”, in the context of interconnected work-learning and identity-learning cycles. Work-learning cycles referred to ECRs’ conceptions of the work they did in their research training experience. ECRs weighed the extent to which they perceived the work they did in their research training to show authenticity, offer room for autonomy, and afford opportunities for epistemic involvement. Identity-learning cycles encompassed ECRs’ conceptions of science researchers. ECRs considered the roles they fill in their research training experiences and if these roles aligned with their perceptions of the tasks and traits of perceived researchers. ECRs’ identity-learning cycles were further shaped by recognition from others. ECRs spoke of how recognition from others embedded within their research training experiences and from others removed from their research training experiences influenced how they see themselves as science researchers. We synthesized our findings to form a revised conceptual model of science researcher identity, which offers enhanced theoretical precision to study science identity in the future. We hypothesize relationships among constructs related to science identity and professional identity development that can be tested in further research. Our results also offer practical implications to foster the science researcher identity of ECRs.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"141 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140325504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prior experiences as students and instructors play a critical role in instructors’ decision to adopt evidence-based instructional practices","authors":"Annika R. Kraft, Emily L. Atieh, Lu Shi, Marilyne Stains","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00478-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00478-3","url":null,"abstract":"There has been a growing interest in characterizing factors influencing teaching decisions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instructors in order to address the slow uptake of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs). This growing body of research has identified contextual factors (e.g., classroom layout, departmental norms) as primary influencers of STEM instructors’ decision to implement EBIPs in their courses. However, models of influences on instructional practices indicate that context is only one type of factor to consider. Other factors fall at the individual level such as instructors’ past teaching experience and their views on learning. Few studies have been able to explore in depth the role of these individual factors on the adoption of EBIPs since it is challenging to control for contextual features when studying current instructors. Moreover, most studies exploring adoption of EBIPs do not take into account the distinctive features of each EBIP and the influence these features may have on the decision to adopt the EBIP. Rather, studies typically explore barriers and drivers to the implementation of EBIPs in general. In this study, we address these gaps in the literature by conducting an in-depth exploration of individual factors and EBIPs’ features that influence nine future STEM instructors’ decisions to incorporate a selected set of EBIPs in their teaching. We had hypothesized that the future instructors would have different reasoning to support their decisions to adopt or not Peer Instruction and the 5E Model as the two EBIPs have distinctive features. However, our results demonstrate that instructors based their decisions on similar factors. In particular, we found that the main drivers of their decisions were (1) the compatibility of the EBIP with their past experiences as students and instructors as well as teaching values and (2) experiences provided in the pedagogical course they were enrolled in. This study demonstrates that when considering the adoption of EBIPs, there is a need to look beyond solely contextual influences on instructor’s decisions to innovate in their courses and explore individual factors. Moreover, professional development programs should leverage their participants past experiences as students and instructors and provide an opportunity for instructors to experience new EBIPs as learners and instructors.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140302527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction: Pre-service elementary teachers’ science and engineering teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy: exploring the impacts of efficacy source experiences through varying course modalities","authors":"Rebekah Hammack, Ibrahim H. Yeter, Christina Pavlovich, Tugba Boz","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00477-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00477-4","url":null,"abstract":"<br/><p><b>Correction: International Journal of STEM Education (2024) 11:4</b> <b>https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00464-9</b></p><p>In this article, the note to explain the numbers within Fig. 3 was omitted from the figure’s caption due to a typesetting mistake. The incomplete and corrected caption for Fig. 3 can be found below and the original article has been corrected. The publisher apologises to the authors and readers for the inconvenience caused by this error.</p><p>The incomplete caption to Fig. 3: Changes in mean scores by modality.</p><p>The corrected caption to Fig. 3: Changes in mean scores by modality. <i>Note</i>. 1 = F2F, 2 = Hybrid, 3 = Online, 4 = Rapid Shift Online.</p><p>In addition, the author name Ibrahim H. Yeter was incorrectly written as Ibrahim Yeter. The author group has been updated above and the original article has been corrected.</p><h3>Authors and Affiliations</h3><ol><li><p>Purdue University, 100 N. University Street, BRNG 4156, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA</p><p>Rebekah Hammack</p></li><li><p>Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore</p><p>Ibrahim H. Yeter</p></li><li><p>Montana State University, Bozeman, USA</p><p>Christina Pavlovich</p></li><li><p>Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA</p><p>Tugba Boz</p></li></ol><span>Authors</span><ol><li><span>Rebekah Hammack</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Ibrahim H. Yeter</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Christina Pavlovich</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Tugba Boz</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li></ol><h3>Corresponding author</h3><p>Correspondence to Rebekah Hammack.</p><h3>Publisher's Note</h3><p>Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.</p><p><b>Open Access</b> This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/license","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"239 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140170112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond STEM attrition: changing career plans within STEM fields in college is associated with lower motivation, certainty, and satisfaction about one’s career","authors":"Emily Q. Rosenzweig, Xiao-Yin Chen, Yuchen Song, Amy Baldwin, Michael M. Barger, Michael E. Cotterell, Jonathan Dees, Allison S. Injaian, Nandana Weliweriya, Jennifer R. Walker, Craig C. Wiegert, Paula P. Lemons","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00475-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00475-6","url":null,"abstract":"Research and policy often focus on reducing attrition from educational trajectories leading to careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but many students change career plans within STEM. This study examined how changing career plans within STEM fields was associated with psychological indicators of career readiness. We conducted a large online survey of undergraduate students (N = 1,727) across 42 courses covering every major STEM discipline at a large U.S. research-intensive public university. Students reported about their career plans, whether plans had changed, motivation for those career plans, and satisfaction with and certainty of persisting with those plans. A trained team of coders classified whether students reported having STEM career plans at the time of the survey and at the beginning of college. Students who said they had changed career plans within STEM fields during college also reported lower motivation for their new career plans, satisfaction with those plans, and certainty of persisting in them, compared to students who retained consistent STEM career plans. With few exceptions, these associations held across students’ gender, race, year in school, and STEM field of study. Within-STEM career plan changes were very common, reported by 55% of fourth-year STEM students. Women reported changing career plans within STEM fields more often than men. Results suggest that changing career plans within STEM is an important phenomenon to consider in preparing a qualified and diverse STEM workforce. Students who change career plans within STEM fields may need additional supports for their career motivation and satisfaction compared to students who do not change plans.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140034228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using collaborative autoethnography to investigate mentoring relationships for novice engineering education researchers","authors":"Julie P. Martin, Deepthi E. Suresh, Paul A. Jensen","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00473-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00473-8","url":null,"abstract":"The National Science Foundation Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF) program aims to increase research capacity in the field by providing funding for technical engineering faculty to learn to conduct engineering education research through mentorship by an experienced social science researcher. We use collaborative autoethnography to study the tripartite RIEF mentoring relationship between Julie, an experienced engineering education researcher, and two novice education researchers who have backgrounds in biomedical engineering—Paul, a biomedical engineering faculty member and major professor to the second novice, Deepthi, a graduate student. We ground our work in the cognitive apprenticeship model and Eby and colleagues’ mentoring model. Using data from written reflections and interviews, we explored the role of instrumental and psychosocial supports in our mentoring relationship. In particular, we noted how elements of cognitive apprenticeship such as scaffolding and gradual fading of instrumental supports helped Paul and Deepthi learn qualitative research skills that differed drastically from their biomedical engineering research expertise. We initially conceptualized our tripartite relationship as one where Julie mentored Paul and Paul subsequently mentored Deepthi. Ultimately, we realized that this model was unrealistic because Paul did not yet possess the social science research expertise to mentor another novice. As a result, we changed our model so that Julie mentored both Paul and Deepthi directly. While our mentoring relationship was overall very positive, it has included many moments of miscommunication and misunderstanding. We draw on Lent and Lopez’s idea of relation-inferred self-efficacy to explain some of these missed opportunities for communication and understanding. This paper contributes to the literature on engineering education capacity building by studying mentoring as a mechanism to support technically trained researchers in learning to conduct engineering education research. Our initial mentoring model failed to take into account how challenging it is for mentees to make the paradigm shift from technical engineering to social science research and how that would affect Paul’s ability to mentor Deepthi. Our experiences have implications for expanding research capacity because they raise practical and conceptual issues for experienced and novice engineering education researchers to consider as they form mentoring relationships.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139948985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Systemic advantage has a meaningful relationship with grade outcomes in students’ early STEM courses at six research universities","authors":"Sarah D. Castle, W. Carson Byrd, Benjamin P. Koester, Meaghan I. Pearson, Emily Bonem, Natalia Caporale, Sonja Cwik, Kameryn Denaro, Stefano Fiorini, Yangqiuting Li, Chris Mead, Heather Rypkema, Ryan D. Sweeder, Montserrat B. Valdivia Medinaceli, Kyle M. Whitcomb, Sara E. Brownell, Chantal Levesque-Bristol, Marco Molinaro, Chandralekha Singh, Timothy A. McKay, Rebecca L. Matz","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00474-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00474-7","url":null,"abstract":"Large introductory lecture courses are frequently post-secondary students’ first formal interaction with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Grade outcomes in these courses are often disparate across student populations, which, in turn, has implications for student retention. This study positions such disparities as a manifestation of systemic inequities along the dimensions of sex, race/ethnicity, income, and first-generation status and investigates the extent to which they are similar across peer institutions. We examined grade outcomes in a selected set of early STEM courses across six large, public, research-intensive universities in the United States over ten years. In this sample of more than 200,000 STEM course enrollments, we find that course grade benefits increase significantly with the number of systemic advantages students possess at all six institutions. The observed trends in academic outcomes versus advantage are strikingly similar across universities despite the fact that we did not control for differences in grading practices, contexts, and instructor and student populations. The findings are concerning given that these courses are often students’ first post-secondary STEM experiences. STEM course grades are typically lower than those in other disciplines; students taking them often pay grade penalties. The systemic advantages some student groups experience are correlated with significant reductions in these grade penalties at all six institutions. The consistency of these findings across institutions and courses supports the claim that inequities in STEM education are a systemic problem, driven by factors that go beyond specific courses or individual institutions. Our work provides a basis for the exploration of contexts where inequities are exacerbated or reduced and can be used to advocate for structural change within STEM education. To cultivate more equitable learning environments, we must reckon with how pervasive structural barriers in STEM courses negatively shape the experiences of marginalized students.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139948910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}