A combination of student understanding of the nature of science, an epistemology of science, the student's culture and general worldview has been shown to influence a student's success in science. The underlying scientific epistemological view (SEV) of the student may be a significant factor in student views about science as well as student's level of success in science. The proposed research will investigate the scientific epistemological views (SEVs) of STEM majors at HBCUs and other universities to determine to what extent student SEV is a factor in undergraduate students' experiences and subsequently retention in a STEM major to graduation.
The research will look for potential correlation between student's view of science as a desired major and student's SEV. In addition the study will investigate differences between student ethnic group classification and SEV in order to provide information about the diversity of epistemic thought in science classrooms.
The research methodology for this project consists of a quantitative and qualitative cohort study using a survey instrument referred to as the SEV-S to provide data regarding student's scientific epistemological views. A pilot study has been completed using this instrument and design methodology at Tennessee State University and statistically significant differences in epistemologies of science were found between STEM majors/non-STEM majors, male/female students, and students of different ethnicities.
Despite emphases upon career choices, the demographics of the science workforce do not match the United States population demographics. Minority groups, such as African-Americans, comprise 20 percent of the population, but in 1999 less than 6% of all Ph.D. degrees awarded in science and engineering in the United States were awarded to minority students (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2007). Previous research has shown differences in the scientific epistemological views (SEV) between science majors and non-science majors (Liu & Tsai, 2008). Many factors influence students’ SEV such as culture, curriculum, popular beliefs, methods of teaching, etc., as well as one’s concepts of learning science (Liu & Tsai, 2008). In this study, we analyze data collected from undergraduate college students (N=3,851) from diverse backgrounds at three universities in Middle Tennessee, which consisted of two public universities (one of them an HBCU), and one private religious university. These diverse backgrounds are classified as gender, ethnicity, classification (i.e. freshman, sophomore, and so forth), intent to teach, science area (i.e. biology, chemistry, and so forth), and study group (course level). Data were collected during the spring 2011, fall 2011, spring 2012, and fall 2012, semesters via survey research that utilized a questionnaire developed by Liu and Tsai (2005); this instrument assesses students’ SEV using five subscales and one open-ended question. However, one of the subscales had to be discarded due to a finding of low reliability; therefore, only four of the five subscales were used. We found significant differences by gender (Inventive-Creative and Creative-Tentative subscales), ethnicity (Creative-Tentative subscale), classification (Social Negotiation and Creative-Tentative subscales), Intent to Teach (Inventive-Creative and Cultural Impacts subscales), Science Area (Creative-Tentative subscale), and Study Group (Social Negotiation, Inventive-Creative, and Creative-Tentative subscales. Our analysis of the open-ended question revealed the following descriptive categories: Everyday Life, Explanations, Human Endeavor, Science as Process, Theory/Proof/Facts, Natural Phenomena, Science as Changing, Science as Complex, School Science, and Data-driven. These results provide representative details of the various epistemologies of science among undergraduate students, and this information can be used to further develop instruction, recruitment, and retention strategies for diverse undergraduate students studying science.
