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undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, raising many issues related to the diversity, opportunity, and challenges for institutions teaching undergraduate STEM education.
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. Students in large STEM courses that combine pre-class preparatory assignments and in-class active learning activities earn higher grades, have lower failure rates, and report an increased sense of community over courses that use simply lecture (Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Freeman et al., 2014)
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. Together these fields provide evidence for teaching approaches that foster learning of particular relevance to this study; they capture information about inequities in STEM learning and provide information about teaching strategies that reduce inequity in STEM learning environments.
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Instructors in the undergraduate STEM classrooms influence students' learning by defining course-level learning goals and incorporating teaching practices and opportunities for students to achieve these learning goals. Instructors can choose goals and practices that focus on mastery of skills rather than performance in order to help students engage in higher-order cognitive skills, persist in the face of failure, and retain knowledge and skills over the long term (Henry et al., 2019; Hernandez et al., 2013)
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Here we discuss the related concept of "active learning," which has been frequently used in conversations about improving undergraduate STEM education. The phrase has been so well used that it sometimes seems to mean any practice that deviates from traditional lecturing.
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, which presents a vision in which students use disciplinary practices together with cross-cutting concepts to deepen their understanding of disciplinary core ideas. While implementing active learning has been shown to increase student achievement and can reduce achievement gaps in undergraduate STEM courses it is still incumbent on instructors to implement active learning strategies in equitable ways that respect student identity (Dewsbury et al., 2022; Freeman et al., 2014; Theobald et al., 2020)
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; beliefs that success in STEM disciplines requires natural genius and brilliance, rather than hard work and learning (Leslie et al., 2015) ; and lack of exposure to active learning as a student (Apkarian et al., 2021; Kraft et al., 2024a)
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Thus, there is substantial evidence that undergraduate STEM teaching has been both ineffective and inequitable in a wide variety of settings. Because of this, it is also important to note that undergraduate STEM education is not a monolith.
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. Instructors in foundational courses across the STEM disciplines are more likely to emphasize content knowledge as the most important outcome for students, and to spend most of class time lecturing (Ferrare, 2019; Stains et al., 2018)
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. These particular course combinations may be especially problematic for underserved students and together these effects create a problem for momentum and navigation and can lead to students switching out of a STEM major into other degree programs (Brown et al., 2018; Hunter, 2019; Slim et al., 2014)
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. Math Course Sequences While many disciplines require course sequences that can be problematic for students in their majors, students in virtually all STEM majors are required to traverse the mathematics course sequences, which are traditionally organized in a linear and hierarchical fashion (McFarland & Rodan, 2009)
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. These experiences also have numerous potential barriers to participation and full engagement that produce systemic inequities in access and success with underserved students facing disproportionate financial, cultural, social, and physical barriers (Carabajal et al., 2017; Morales et al., 2020; Posselt & Nuñez, 2022)
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Technology that is designed around accessibility, student-centered design, and effectiveness and equity has the potential to be a significant driver for improving undergraduate STEM education for all students. PRACTICES COMMONLY USED TODAY CONTRIBUTE TO INEQUITIES IN STUDENT EXPERIENCES There is substantial evidence for ongoing inequity in undergraduate STEM and hiring into the STEM workforce.
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. In addition, a substantial literature points to "within-college" factors -- including earned credits in introductory STEM courses, participation in key academic activities, and hostile classroom environments as shaping students' experiences, persistence, and performance (Barbera et al., 2020; Chang et al., 2014; Evans et al., 2020; Martin et al., 2017b)
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Power and Privilege In addition to the evidence for inequity in STEM courses and programs, there are issues regarding the centering of power and privilege. Many students perceive that the STEM disciplines privilege White males (Dancy et al., 2020)
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. This rigidity limits the ability of instructors and academic units to deviate from these expectations and adopt equitable and effective teaching practices.
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.5 Project Kaleidoscope,6 now housed at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) 7 has also focused on improving undergraduate STEM teaching.
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aplu.org/our-work/2-fostering-research-innovation/aplu-aspire/institutional-change-network/ 9 More information about the Vision and Change project in biology is available at https:// new.nsf.gov/news/vision-change-undergraduate-biology-initiative 10 More information about the Vision and Change project in the geosciences is available at https://www.americangeosciences.org/change/ 11 More information about BioQUEST and Qubes is available at https://qubeshub.org/ 12 More information about Carnegie Math Pathways is available at https://carnegiemath pathways.org/ 13 More information about the Equity Based Teaching Collective is available at https://www. everylearnereverywhere.org/blog/new-playbook-outlines-an-ecosystem-approach-to-equitybased-teaching/ 14 More information about NACUBO's Blueprint for Student-Centered Strategic Finance is available at https://www.nacubo.org/Press-Releases/2024/NACUBO-Student-Success-HubHighlights-Financial-Links-to-Equitable-Student-Outcomes 15 More information about the Achieving the Dream program is available at https://achieving thedream.org/ 16 More information about the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program is available at https://highered.aspeninstitute.org/ 17 More information about CCPI-STEM is available at https://www.ccpi-stem.org/ 18 More information about SAGE 2YC is available at https://serc.carleton.edu/sage2yc/ index.html 19 More information about the UDL approach is available at https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
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The evidence is more mixed on the ability of evidence-based teaching approaches to address inequities in student experiences and more research on the best ways to decrease inequities in grading, persistence, belonging, and other areas would be beneficial. The current common approaches to foundational courses, prerequisites, course progressions, and course combinations complicate efforts to provide equitable and effective STEM education and there are several other special considerations that are relevant to students gaining understanding and navigating experiences in these fields, especially those that focus on labwork or fieldwork.
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Conclusion 3.2: Instructional practices that take students' interests and experiences into account and empower them with authentic opportuni ties to engage with disciplinary content, practices, and analysis are more effective for a wider range of students than instructional practices that rely solely on lecture, reading, and memorization of content, proce dures, and algorithms. Conclusion 3.3: Students' experiences in foundational courses are par ticularly important for their persistence in STEM.
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