Harsha Perera (Educational Psychology & Higher Education) and co-investigators at multiple institutions were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to investigate and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). The study seeks to confirm a taxonomy of three features necessary for successful personalized learning:

• content should be personalized so that it aligns to student interests
• problems must be sufficiently granular to more precisely align to student interests
• students must perceive ownership in the process