No abstract

Her research, teaching, and service address achievement motivation, the scholarship of teaching and learning, mentorship models for undergraduate and graduate students, and professional support of all students, with special emphasis for those from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM and beyond. She has enjoyed collaborations with colleagues from multidisciplinary backgrounds toward solving special challenges in teaching and learning. Her ongoing collaborations analyze 1) the experiences of participants in STEM professional development programs for retention and success in academia and 2) similarities, differences, and gaps in the expectations of STEM faculty and students toward successful undergraduate course completion.Ms. Shawnisha Shonté Hester, University of Maryland Baltimore County Shawnisha S. Hester is an Evaluation and Assessment Coordinator. She earned both her BA in Psychology and MA in Applied Sociology from University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She went on to complete her MSW from University of Maryland School of Social Work. Her research interests focus on using qualitative research methods that measure various phenomena and making connections via an interdisciplinary approach, qualitative evaluation and assessment measurements, increasing the number of minorities in STEM fields, and program development at the graduate level. She has had the opportunity to present at a regional and national conference and she has conducted research internationally. In addition, Ms. Hester is a licensed graduate social worker (LGSW) IntroductionThe National Science Foundation's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program has a focus on increasing the numbers of underrepresented minorities (URM) who will get STEM PhDs and go on to become professors and enhance the nation's competitiveness.1 By examining the roles that graduate student AGEP participants from disciplines other than science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) play in engineering education in general, and to become engineering education faculty, researchers and advocates in particular, it is imperative to know and understand the motives which drive this phenomena.Historically serving students within STEM fields, the AGEP for our state, PROMISE: Maryland's AGEP, has taken the initiative to broaden its reach to include participants from various disciplines that include science, education, and the humanities, in addition to opening up professional development activities to all graduate students regardless of race, class, discipline and culture. Founded in late 2002, with programmatic activities beginning in 2003, the PROMISE AGEP was led by one of the universities that had special emphases on diverse student recruitment and retention in STEM fields, with partnerships with the state's flagship campus, and the medical campus.2 These schools, the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP), and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), are institutions within th...

No abstract

Quality learning is fostered when faculty members are aware of and address student expectations for course learning activities and assessments. However, faculty often have difficulty identifying and addressing student expectations given variations in students’ backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs about education. Prior research has described significant discrepancies between student and faculty expectations that result from cultural backgrounds (1), technological expertise (2), and ‘teaching dimensions’ as described by Trudeau and Barnes (4). Such studies illustrate the need for tools to identify and index student expectations, which can be used to facilitate a dialogue between instructor and students. Here we present the results of our work to develop, refine, and deploy such a tool.

Undergraduate academic peer mentors gain a deeper understanding of the academic content and develop professional teaching and coaching skills. While the value of this high impact practice is well documented for academic outcomes, little is known about the leadership self-efficacy that results from serving as an academic peer mentor. In this initial quantitative study of a cross-disciplinary academic peer mentoring program for 79 American undergraduates, we found that after serving as an academic peer mentor, students reported higher self-efficacy for leading groups. Academic peer mentorship programs show promise as a leadership development opportunity for college students.