Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education Supporting Equitable and Effective Teaching (2025) / Chapter Skim
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7 Student Pathways Through Undergraduate STEM Curricula
Pages 155-174

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From page 155...
... Students experience undergraduate STEM education as a series of courses and also as an array of interconnected interactions with peers, advisors, academic units, and various offices in one or, often, more than one college or university. These student experiences vary due to institution type, discipline, program structure, and course format in addition to more student-specific academic and non-academic factors (e.g., race, gender, etc.; see Chapters 2 and 3 for a more detailed discussion)
From page 156...
... . This may be particularly important for community college students who often have less extensive ties to disciplinary research communities and sometimes have lower levels of STEM identity (Teshera-Levye et al., 2023)
From page 157...
... . While many students take STEM courses in high school, the opportunity to access these courses and the preparation that they provide for success in undergraduate STEM education is not equitable.
From page 158...
... . Dual enrollment courses and programs enable students interested in STEM to study topics that are not available to them in their regular course offerings and may help increase engagement, motivation, or STEM identity -- all from choosing to participate in a special course.
From page 159...
... . Such initiatives may also be called a variation on Summer Success Academy, Summer Start, or Jump Start (e.g., Albany State University,1 Coppin State University,2 Durham Technical College,3 George Washington University,4 and Clemson University5)
From page 160...
... A few studies have sought to analyze how students experience STEM education in terms 6 More about the CSM BOND program at Fresno State University is available at https:// csm.fresnostate.edu/fye/index.html
From page 161...
... network. ATD works with institutions, mainly community colleges, to improve student success by supporting college instructors and administrators in making change.
From page 162...
... . Another important element to consider is the impact of departmental, college, and university policies on student pathways through undergraduate STEM learning.
From page 163...
... Missing are required math course, other introductory STEM courses, and breadth courses that prepare students to participate as citizens in a pluralistic democracy. SOURCE: Brown (2024)
From page 164...
... . The Role of Teaching and Learning Environments Learning environments play a key role in student learning, with quantitative survey data and student interviews alike reinforcing that students frequently encounter gendered or chilly STEM learning environments (Jorstad et al., 2017; Marco-Bujosa et al., 2021; Wickersham & Wang, 2016)
From page 165...
... (2023) showed that, at community colleges, Black engineering students' persistence and transfer pathways 10 More information about the Texas Affordable Baccalaureate Program is available at https://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/4/the-texas-affordable-baccalaureate-program 11 More information about Western Governors University is available at https://nces.ed.gov/ ipeds/institution-profile/433387 12 More information about the course structure at Western Governors University is available at https://www.wgu.edu/student-experience.html
From page 166...
... (2022) found similar gendered and racialized experiences based on interviews with Black women in STEM starting at community colleges, the experiences were concentrated at four-year institutions after they transferred.
From page 167...
... . STEM encompasses science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplinary areas and their subdisciplines and often denotes the academic transfer courses that are aimed at building toward advanced STEM studies at a four-year institution (Van Noy & Zeidenberg, 2017)
From page 168...
... (2023) conducted interviews and focus groups with Black community college students in engineering and found that the students felt largely supported by their community colleges, particularly with regard to personal
From page 169...
... Interviews with CTE instructors at two community colleges revealed that faculty were challenged by how to best support disabled students during college and transition them successfully into the workforce, but they also recognized the value of the innovative insights these students can bring CTE programs and fields (Nachman, 2024)
From page 170...
... Programs such as these can provide the practices that have been shown to promote STEM identity, persistence, and intention to proceed in STEM education and careers (Linn et al., 2015; National Academies, 2019b; Ramos et al., 2024) , and academic success (Aikens et al., 2017; Atkins et al., 2020)
From page 171...
... In many cases students who have completed courses with good grades at community colleges have trouble receiving credit for these learning experiences at the institutions where they wish to transfer. These receiving institutions are often not as supportive in helping students to navigate continued STEM study as they could be (Jabbar et al., 2021; Thiry et al., 2023)
From page 172...
... For transfers from community colleges to private institutions, the policies and procedures will be determined at an institutional level. In recent years, transfers from technical colleges (where the focus is on learning technical skills and practicing skills needed for the workforce)
From page 173...
... Dual enrollment, CTE programs, and transfer pathways all illustrate the critical role that community colleges play in the overall undergraduate STEM education system. Increased attention by instructors and administrators to the preferences and circumstance of the large numbers of students who participate in these programs and pathways has the potential to help improve STEM learning experiences for many students.
From page 174...
... Obstacles to smooth transfer path ways from community colleges to baccalaureate-granting institutions are likely to disproportionately impact first-generation, low-income, or minoritized students, further exacerbating their already disproportion ate representation. Conclusion 7.4: Career and technical education (CTE)


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