Research-Based Strategies for Teaching

The Takeaway: Using their experience with initiatives at The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the authors offer three suggestions to guide a concerted national strategy for “doubling down” on the persistence of minoritized students in science. They argue that by insisting that institutions take responsibility for creating inclusive campuses, leveraging successful models through adaptation and adoption, and aligning strategies across the STEM ecosystem, instructors can double the persistence of students from all backgrounds in STEM.

Why is this important?

• Among undergraduates who enter college planning to study STEM, only 20% of minoritized students complete a STEM baccalaureate degree compared with ∼40% of  white and Asian students. The persistence rate of minorities is halved again at the graduate level: among those with science baccalaureates, the “yield” of minoritized students is about half that of white and Asian students.
• To continue the U.S.’ global leadership in STEM innovation, educators must find ways to replace exclusion with inclusion by drawing from the many experiences and communities that together form this country’s deep and dynamic talent pool. Capturing the energy and perspectives presented by the nation’s ethnic diversity should be viewed as a great opportunity.

Three Suggestions

1. Adaptation and Adoption

• Rather than insisting that every idea be new, we should carefully examine existing programs to see whether there are viable opportunities to apply them to similar challenges at other institutions.
• Because programs are often designed to address specific needs, their successful implementation on other campuses requires adapting essential elements to work in a different context.

2. Alignment

• A student’s sense of belonging is affected by everything they experience and everyone they encounter—their instructors, dorm, and fellow students, the campus newspaper, and the language used by faculty and administrators.
• A campus should gather its many parts to work together to create a climate that openly values inclusion of all persons.
• The authors call on other organizations—funding agencies, accrediting organizations, and scientific societies—to work with campuses to achieve alignment between different efforts and maximize the impact of diversity initiatives.

3. Institutional Accountability

• Institutional accountability involves the frank assessment of campus climate for inclusion and the continuous measurement of institutional progress.
• It requires intentional skills development for faculty and administrators so they have the opportunity to learn how to communicate about and across differences and effectively integrate active learning in their teaching.
• It also includes changing the curriculum and modernizing the expectations of faculty so students can be successful and faculty will be encouraged to participate in activities that promote inclusion of students from all backgrounds.

What university programming have you seen that exhibits the three suggestions? Where do you see room for growth?