Supporting Student Agency in Undergraduate Biomedical Education: An Online Agentic Orientation Intervention

• In Event: Intervening for Impact: Mindsets, Executive Function, and Self-Regulation from Early Childhood to College

Abstract

Persistence in biomedical science majors remains a prevalent issue for undergraduate students, particularly underrepresented minority students (URM). This longitudinal, cluster-randomized trial tested an online intervention promoting agentic orientation—students’ proactive engagement in shaping their motivation and learning—in STEM courses across three universities. Results showed that the student intervention was significantly associated with agentic mindset, which in turn predicted greater agentic engagement, belonging in class, STEM major intentions, and course grades. Results showed that neither URM status nor instructors’ assignment to a workshop condition moderated the benefits of the student intervention on students’ agentic mindset. These findings suggest that bolstering student agency may be a successful and scalable strategy to improve STEM motivation, belonging, and achievement.

Authors

• Amanda Vite, University of Southern California

• Keenan Pituch, Arizona State University

• Carlton J. Fong, Texas State University

• Germine Awad, University of Michigan

• Yanyan Zong, University of Southern California

• Pedram Zarei, Texas State University

• Lillian Nguyen, University of Michigan

• Diane Lee, University of Southern California

• Christa Bancroft, University of Southern California

• Kristy Daniel, Texas State University - San Marcos

• Timothy A. McKay, University of Michigan

• Stephen Aguilar

• Kevin O'Neal Cokley, University of Michigan

• Carolyn Jess, Texas State University

• Erika A. Patall, University of Southern California