Constructs working group
Co-chairs:
Sara E. Brownell
W. Carson Byrd
Susan J. Cheng
J.W. Hammond
Nita Kedharnath
What is a construct?
1. If we want to measure a construct, �we have to define it��2. Words matter, definitions matter, the absence or exclusion of words matter�
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research question:
Do underrepresented minority (URM) students experience an achievement gap in large gateway courses?
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research question:
Do underrepresented minority (URM) students experience an achievement gap in large gateway courses?
Underrepresented minority (URM) is a well established term in education literature.
National Science Foundation uses the term (African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic/Latinx, and Native Americans/Alaskan Natives)
Google scholar search yields ~200K publications
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research question:
Do underrepresented minority (URM) students experience an achievement gap in large gateway courses?
Underrepresented minority (URM) is a non-specific term
Used to describe racial/ethnic minorities, but it doesn’t say this in the term
This may inadvertently undermine the challenges for other groups that are underrepresented in science and thus are also underrepresented minorities (e.g. individuals with disabilities)
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research question:
Do underrepresented minority (URM) students experience an achievement gap in large gateway courses?
Underrepresented minority (URM) has been called a racist term
“Under” implies less than and is student-deficit
It denies groups to be able to name themselves
It blinds us to differences among individuals who are ”URM”
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research question:
Do underrepresented minority (URM) students experience an achievement gap in large gateway courses?
Alternatives to URM:
Use the actual identities represented
AHN (African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic/Latinx, and Native Americans/Alaskan Natives)
PEER (persons excluded because of ethnicity or race)
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research question:
Do underrepresented minority (URM) students experience an achievement gap in large gateway courses?
Compared to whom? White students? White and Asian students?
There has been some critique about the use of the term “achievement gap” because it is student-deficit
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research methods description:
We examined the participation of first generation students compared to continuing generation students. We surveyed students about the extent to which they participated in class and collected demographic information including whether students were first generation.
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Possible SEISMIC research methods description:
We examined the participation of first generation students compared to continuing generation students. We surveyed students about the extent to which they participated in class and collected demographic information including whether students were first generation.
How is first generation defined? First in one’s immediate family? First in one’s family ever? How was the question asked? Is it whether one parent enrolled in college? Completed some college? Attained a Bachelors degree? Is the question asked about mother’s education? Father’s education?
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Cooper KM, Krieg A, Brownell SE. Who perceives they are smarter? Exploring the influence of student characteristics on student academic self-concept in physiology. Advances in physiology education. 2018
What’s potentially wrong with this?
Males and females describes sex, but the construct measured is gender so it should be men and women
What about non-gender binary individuals?
Cooper KM, Krieg A, Brownell SE. Who perceives they are smarter? Exploring the influence of student characteristics on student academic self-concept in physiology. Advances in physiology education. 2018
1. If we want to measure a construct, �we have to define it��2. Words matter, definitions matter, the absence or exclusion of words matter�
Constructs working group: What have we done so far and where are we going?
Constructs working group projects
Constructs working group projects
Constructs working group: Our hopeful impact
Beyond our projects, we hope that this working group can help elevate the conversations in SEISMIC as a whole so that we are more thoughtful about our language, our definitions, and who is included or excluded in how we analyze data, interpret data, and explain our results.
If you are interested in what we are working on, please join us!
Contact me (Sara.brownell@asu.edu) if you want to join a project or have an idea for another project that relates to our goals.