Benefits of Peer Cohort Interventions for Underrepresented College Students in STEM

• In Event: Understanding Individual and Contextual Predictors of Students' STEM Major Intention and Promoting Diversity in STEM

Abstract

Increasing student engagement and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a national priority in the United States given the high demand for a skilled STEM workforce and a shortage of college graduates pursuing STEM (President’s Council, 2012). This gap exists in part due to the underrepresentation of women, Black, Hispanic, and first-generation college students in STEM majors (Ambrose, 2019; Bettencourt et al., 2020; Landivar, 2013). To increase retention and improve underrepresented minority students’ experiences in STEM, we implemented peer cohort interventions, in which we created inclusive and welcoming learning environments, designed specifically for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
In Study 1, we conducted a longitudinal field quasi-experiment over two academic semesters (N = 307), in which we investigated the benefits of a living learning community (LLC) for first-generation (FG) college students enrolled in introductory biology during their first year of college. We examined 3 groups of participants: 1) an intervention group comprised of FG students in a FG biology LLC, 2) a control group comprised of FG college students not in a LLC, and 3) a group with honors students in a honors biology LLC. In both LLCs, students took introductory biology in a small seminar class with their LLC peers (rather than a large lecture class) and also lived in the same residential hall with their LLC peers. Compared to a control group of FG students who were not in a LLC, a LLC had benefits for FG students’ belonging, anxiety, motivation, and final semester grades (Semester 1), confidence and perceived biology importance (Semester 2), and their second-year retention rate in biological sciences majors. Moreover, FG LLC students had similar academic experiences and retention rate in comparison to honors college students in a separate LLC (90% of whom were continuing-generation students). These results suggest that a LLC can help minimize achievement gaps between first and continuing-generation students in STEM.
In Study 2 (N = 159), we created a six-week online summer academy, which taught leadership and negotiation skills to underrepresented students in technology and engineering. We surveyed students in our academy and students in a randomly assigned control group before the academy began, immediately following the end of the academy, and 10 months after. In comparison with the control group, students who participated in our academy reported increased confidence in their negotiation skills, propensity to negotiate, growth mindset in professional skills, knowledge of professional situations, and perceived importance of professional skill development, at the end of the academy and 10 months after. Furthermore, students’ increased confidence in their negotiation skills at the end of the academy predicted greater motivation in their technology and engineering classes and opportunity seeking for professional advancement in technology and engineering 10 months later.
In sum, we found that creating learning environments designed specifically for underrepresented minority students in STEM, in which students learned with other minority peers, had long-term benefits. Specifically, these interventions had benefits for students’ psychological experiences and retention in STEM, up to one year after these interventions end.

Authors

• Deborah Wu, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Hannah Riley Bowles, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nilanjana Dasgupta, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  Non-Presenting Author