Closing the Social Class Achievement Gap: Exploring the Role of Social Belonging

• In Event: The Role of Peers and Context in Student Motivation

Abstract

Many students start college intending to pursue a career in the biosciences, but abandon this goal because they struggle in introductory biology. Interventions have been developed to close achievement gaps for underrepresented minority students and women, but no prior research has attempted to close the gap for first-generation students, a population that accounts for nearly a fifth of college students. We conducted a values affirmation intervention with 798 students (154 first-generation) in an introductory biology course. For first-generation students, values affirmation significantly improved final course grades and retention in the second course in the biology sequence. In a separate sample, we investigated college belongingness and how a lack of perceived belongingness may be detrimental to the performance of first-generation students.

Authors

• Yoi Tibbetts, University of Wisconsin

• Elizabeth Ann Canning, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Janet S. Hyde, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin