Talking about Leaving Revisited (PDF)

Atlantic.

Anne-Barrie Hunter is co-director of Ethnography & Evaluation Research and program manager for the Center for STEM Learning at the University of Colorado Boulder. Hunter worked with Seymour and Hewitt on the original Talking about Leaving study. Since then, she has collaborated on many E&ER research and evaluation projects focused on postsecondary STEM education improvement, specializing in those aimed at persistence to graduation of students historically under-represented in STEM fields. She and Seymour have worked closely on multiple projects, notably in co-authoring Talking about Disability: The Education and Work Experience of Graduates and Undergraduates with Disabilities in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Majors (1998) and Undergraduate Research in the Sciences: Engaging Students in Real Science (2010), to which Hunter contributed; a qualitative meta-analysis of evidence on the outcomes of undergraduate research, identification of the specific benefits of 'authentic' research experiences and of the costs and benefits to faculty of UR engagement. Grounded in this research, she co-developed E&ER's Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (URSSA) survey, a free, online, validated evaluation instrument for the assessment of UR programs in STEM fields. Hunter has acted as PI, co-PI, external evaluator and consultant for numerous STEM education improvement projects, including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Undergraduate Science Education Program and Inclusive Excellence grants, as well as multiple NSF projects, notably awards that support the advancement of women physicists, climate change education initiatives, and institutional STEM transformation efforts. She was the PI for the five-year, multiple methods study on which the present volume is based; is co-PI for an NSF grant to align administrative systems to enable easier two-year college transfers and is an external evaluator for the Science Technology Center at CU Boulder. Her interests focus on institutional change to support quality STEM education and on faculty professional development in pedagogy that promotes and sustains broader participation in college STEM education.