Instruction Is Contextual: An Examination of McNair Program Curricula for STEM Scholars and Recommendations Based on the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement awards help prepare high-achieving but economically disadvantaged and underrepresented minority students for graduate research. This paper discusses the results of a survey of the 2016–2017 institutional recipients of these awards, about curricula and pedagogy employed in their program’s research course, especially elements specifically created to assist students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. This paper also reviews librarian-led instruction for McNair scholars in STEM at Rutgers University during 2016 and 2017, designed using the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, that explores the disciplinary as well as societal, ethical, and financial contexts of research that are relevant to McNair scholars.

KEYWORDS:

• Framework for Information Literacy
• McNair program
• instruction of STEM students
• undergraduate research

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank her co-instructor, Leslin Charles; the administrators of the Rutgers University McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Awards Program for their support; and colleagues Laura Bowering Mullen and Kevin Mulcahy for their assistance in improving this article.