ADAPT investigated the factors that facilitate or hinder STEM undergraduate instructors from implementing strategies that have demonstrably positive impacts on student outcomes. The research specifically focused on the study of one such intervention called the Utility Value Intervention (UVI), which has been shown to have a positive impact especially on students who are first generation college students or who are from racial and ethnic minority groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields. The UVI helps students to discover connections between science topics and their lives, and to make connections between STEM topics they are studying and their goals. Making these connections helps students appreciate the value of the work, leading to a deeper engagement and involvement which, in turn, enhances career motivation and performance. The ADAPT Project focused on understanding why faculty decide to adopt intervention strategies such as the UVI or not.
The study is framed by organizational theories of diversity resistance and social psychological theories of decision making. The project team collected data from over 900 undergraduate biology instructors from a nationally representative sample. This was complemented by interviews with 40 introductory biology instructors in Phase 1 and field experiments with over 500 biology instructors in Phase 2 to understand attitudes toward adopting or resisting diversity-focused interventions. In Phase 3 of the project, the investigators conducted a randomized controlled trial testing optimized intervention delivery methods with a new nationally representative sample of 200 biology instructors. This project was supported by the Education and Human Resources Core Research Program, which funds fundamental research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.
Publications and Presentations
Manuscripts
Thoman, D.B., Yap, M.J., Herrera, F.A., & Smith. J.L. (2021). Diversity interventions in the classroom: From resistance to action. CBE Life Science Education 20:52, 1-15. doi:10.1187/cbe.20-07-0143
Smith, J. L., McPartlan, P., Poe, J., Herrera Villarreal, F., & Thoman, D. B. (2021). Diversity fatigue: A survey for measuring attitudes towards diversity enhancing efforts in academia. Cultural and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 27 (4), 659-674. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000406
Conference Presentations
Herrera, F., Yap, M.C., and Kovats Sánchez, G. (2020, November). Faculty’s Understanding of Underrepresentation in STEM and the Myth of Meritocracy. Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), virtual conference.
Kovats Sánchez, G., Yap, M.C., Herrera, F. (2021, April). “I don’t see any race issues”: Racial Consciousness and Faculty Behavior in Introductory Biology. American Educational Research Association (AERA), virtual conference.
McPartlan, P., Poe, J., Smith, J. L., & Thoman, D. (May, 2021). COVID catch-22: The double-edged sword of pursuing equitable teaching during a pandemic. Poster presented at Association for Psychological Science annual meeting, virtual.
McPartlan, P., Poe, J., Smith, J. L., & Thoman, D. (May, 2021). Faculty Gatekeepers: An expectancy-value-cost lens for understanding faculty decision-making in the biology classroom. Talk presented at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Conference, virtual.
McPartlan, P., Toves, A., Poe, J. M., Smith, J. L., & Thoman, D. (2020, February). Do White Students Support Diversity Programs in Science? The Role of Implicit Racial Biases. Presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, New Orleans, LA.
Poe, J. M., Smith, J. L., Thoman, D., & McPartlan, P. (2020, February). Diversity Fatigue in Academia: Conceptualizing a new individual difference measure. Presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, New Orleans, LA.
Poe, J. M., Yap, M., McPartlan, P., Thoman, D., Smith, J. L., & Herrera, F. A. (2020, August). Developing a Diversity Resistance to Action Model: A Mixed-Methods Approach. Presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Conference (SPSSI; Division 9) Washington D.C.
Smith, J. L., Thoman, D., Herrera, F. A., McPartlan, P., Yap, M., & Poe, J. M. (2020, June). Faculty Gatekeepers: Diversity Intervention-Resistance to Action Model. Symposia at Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Denver, CO. (Conference cancelled)
Yap, M. & Herrera, F. A. (2020, November). Faculty’s Understanding of Underrepresentation in STEM and the Myth of Meritocracy. Submitted for Presentation at the Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Conference. New Orleans, LA.
Yap, M. & Herrera, F. A. (2020, March). STEM Faculty Efforts in Pedagogical Innovations: An Example in Biology. National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Portland, OR. Online publication (Conference cancelled)
Yap, M.C., Herrera, F., and Kovats Sánchez, G.(2021, April). Teaching- & Research-Focused Faculty: Exploring STEM Instructional Reform in Higher Education. National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), virtual conference.
Yap, M.C., Herrera, F., Kovats Sánchez, G., Thoman, D., Smith, J. (2020). Attitudes Towards Student Writing From Introductory Biology Faculty. Mol. Biol. Cell 28, page Posters-898 (Abstract #P1413). https://www.ascb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PosterAbstracts-2020.pdf