Using Pattern Mapping Pedagogy to Enhance STEM Multiliteracy in Undergraduate Learners

About This Grant

Transformations in technology and global communication now require a multiliteracies pedagogy, one that uses analogy to develop cross-disciplinary, multi-modal learning. This Level 1 Engaged Student Learning project plans to introduce a STEM multiliteracies framework into the undergraduate curriculum at Florida International University. This cognitive approach to analogy suggests one reasons about a novel concept in terms of one that is already familiar, and identifying commonalities between two concepts involves recognizing they share a pattern. The project's curricular model thus leverages pattern mapping as a cognitive tool and learning strategy. Given complex worldwide issues that must be addressed by a STEM-literate public, it is crucial that students strengthen interdisciplinary competencies. Such enhancement will position them to design better integrated solutions across STEM and non-STEM fields and become more proficient in science communication. This project exposes STEM students to literacies that help them better communicate STEM concepts with multiple audiences in the future and integrates STEM with the regular curriculum of non-STEM majors. The project team will house faculty-designed modules in an open-access learning platform, where they will be freely available. The project seeks to develop, test, and disseminate a STEM multiliteracies curricular model that can be implemented across a wide range of undergraduate courses. The curricular intervention takes the form of faculty-designed teaching modules that engage students in analogical reasoning by asking them to make interdisciplinary connections. Studies show that pattern mapping supports student engagement and knowledge retention, enhances critical thinking and problem-solving, and facilitates relationship identification and pattern recognition. The project will first create an instrument to measure students' proficiency in STEM multiliteracy and test this instrument's validity and reliability. A professional development institute that guides faculty in designing the pattern mapping modules will inform the curricular model. Faculty will then integrate their modules into their existing courses, resulting in students producing two writing assignments: a critical reflection and an original pattern map of a course-related STEM subject of their choosing. The project team will assess these artifacts with the developed instrument and refine both the modules and the instrument accordingly. Finally, the same faculty cohort will implement the refined modules in new courses, and the project team will iterate the process of assessment and refinement. Project evaluation utilizes a Participatory Evaluation framework, which actively involves all stakeholders in the evaluation process, ensuring their perspectives and experiences shape the assessment and interpretation of project outcomes. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.