ECR Projects

Explore past and current fundamental STEM education research projects across the three research areas that NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program funds, as well as across ECR funding types. Other search filters draw from both NSF's data and the ECR Hub's hand coding of award abstracts.

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STEM Learning and Learning Environments STEM Learning and Learning Environments  Broadening Participation in STEM Broadening Participation in STEM

Understanding the Development of Interest in Computer Science: An Experience Sampling Approach

Effective Years: 2019-2023

This project explores STEM interest development at the undergraduate level in computer science. It is a study of national importance that will focus on substantial differences in who pursues an interest, a major, or an occupation in computer science. The pilot study will look at what drives these differences at a level where policymakers and educators seeking to support and sustain a more representative population of computer science experts can most effectively act. To address this problem, the project will conduct a pilot study that articulates a fundamental research project appropriate for the ECR program using the experience sampling method (ESM). In order to meet the ECR threshold for research, the investigator will enlist mentors and advisory board members with expertise using this methodology to help identify experiences, expertise, and competencies the investigator will need to develop during the two-year project period. Building on advice of these experts, the investigator will receive assistance in study design, research methods, and data analysis. A deeper understanding in these broad categories will help the investigator use a variety of approaches and measures to examine students' individual characteristics, construct surveys, study variation in students' experiences, and structure timelines for the ESM study. Through the professional development plan, the investigator will address these needs by participating in subject-specific conferences, workshops, short courses, research groups, and mentoring activities in both research methodology and computer science relative to STEM interest development.

The pilot study will be carried out in the context of an introductory undergraduate computer science course using a pool of 200 students. It will be framed in terms of the interest development theory to better understand how students' in-the-moment interest is sparked in specific situations and then accumulates into more ongoing and sustained individual interest. Specifically, ESM will allow the investigator to monitor a short-term intervention to explore how situational interest may change over time into well-developed individual interest. The pilot study will seek to determine if this method is more suitable for understanding situational interest and if so, under what conditions. Data will be collected through pre-post surveys, an experience sampling survey, and short written reports. Data will be analyzed using multivariate, mixed effects models that will consider the relationship between situational and individual interest. Outcomes from this project will be two-fold: an advancement in the investigator's methodological knowledge relative to ESM; and a deeper understanding about how student's interest may develop in computer science as well as what barriers might interfere with such development. The project is supported through the EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research competition that is designed to build individuals' capacity to carry out high quality fundamental STEM education research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, 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.