Our Research
We aim to conduct rigorous research that provides the evidence STEM instructors, departments, and universities need to advocate for and implement change. We use social science research methods combined with biology and STEM perspectives to address our research questions.
Our research centers on the question: How can we (re)create educational practices in STEM to better support students and instructors?
Projects in the Lab
Current projects in the lab focus on characterizing the experiences of STEM students with disabilities and exploring how students and instructors can approach teaching and research mentoring to foster students’ own agency.
Systematic Reviews
Many students with disabilities find it difficult to get the support they need in science and math classes in college because STEM instructors are still learning how to best support disabled students in their instruction. This systematic literature review project aims to compile existing research about STEM students with disabilities and their instructors. The goal is to use this information to guide future efforts for change based on empirical findings from the literature.
Identity Negotiations
Science identity, or the extent to which an individual sees themselves as a scientist, influences students' persistence in science and science career training pathways. Yet, knowledge about how students from certain groups see themselves and perceive others to see them as scientists is still developing. For instance, little is currently known about how disabled graduate students see their identities as both scientists and disabled individuals.
This project, led by Dr. Stephanie Berg, will characterize disabled graduate students' experiences related to their science identity.
Check out Lab News for more info about Stephanie's fellowship.
Journeys & Structures
To understand how to best support disabled students and instructors in STEM, we need to know where these individuals are coming from and where they intend to go in the future. This project will collect data and artifacts from students and instructors to inform future research efforts.
Job Crafting
Job crafting, a way for employees to shape their work tasks and relationships at work, has been shown to have many benefits. Employees who tailor their jobs to fit their strengths and interests tend to feel better at work and are more likely to want to stay in their current jobs than those who don't. Because of this, there is a growing interest in promoting job crafting to help prevent burnout and turnover. In the field of STEM education, there is a recognized need to create curriculum that helps students develop skills for their future careers. This project aims to use the principles of job crafting from organizational psychology to develop and assess job-crafting educational materials for STEM students and early career researchers.
