Hecht Cameron A, Harackiewicz Judith M, Priniski Stacy J, Canning Elizabeth A, Tibbetts Yoi, Hyde Janet S
University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Indiana University.
J Educ Psychol. 2019 Nov;11(8):1462-1477. doi: 10.1037/edu0000356.
A wide range of occupations require science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills, yet almost half of students who intend to pursue a post-secondary STEM education abandon these plans before graduating from college. This attrition is especially pronounced among underrepresented groups (i.e., racial/ethnic minorities and first-generation college students). We conducted a two-year follow-up of a utility-value intervention that had been implemented in an introductory biology course. This intervention was previously shown to improve performance in the course, on average and especially among underrepresented students, reducing the achievement gap. The goal of the present study was to examine whether the intervention also impacted persistence in the biomedical track throughout college. The intervention had a more positive impact on long-term persistence for students who were more confident that they could succeed at the beginning of the course, and this effect was partially driven by the extent to which students reflected on the personal relevance of biological topics in their essays. This mechanism was distinct from the process that had been found to underlie intervention effects on performance - engagement with course material - suggesting that utility-value interventions may affect different academic outcomes by initiating distinct psychological processes. Although we did not find that the intervention was differentially effective for underrepresented students in terms of persistence, we found that positive effects on performance were associated with increased persistence for these students. Results suggest that utility-value interventions in an introductory course can be an effective strategy to promote persistence in the biomedical sciences throughout college.
众多职业都需要科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）技能，但几乎一半打算接受高等 STEM 教育的学生在大学毕业前就放弃了这些计划。这种流失在代表性不足的群体（即少数种族/族裔和第一代大学生）中尤为明显。我们对在一门生物学入门课程中实施的效用价值干预措施进行了为期两年的跟踪研究。此前的研究表明，这种干预措施平均而言能够提高课程成绩，尤其对代表性不足的学生有帮助，缩小了成绩差距。本研究的目的是考察该干预措施是否也会影响学生在整个大学期间对生物医学专业的坚持。对于那些在课程开始时更有信心取得成功的学生，该干预措施对长期坚持产生了更积极的影响，而且这种影响部分是由学生在论文中思考生物主题与个人相关性的程度所驱动的。这一机制与已发现的干预措施对成绩产生影响的过程（即与课程材料的互动）不同，这表明效用价值干预措施可能通过启动不同的心理过程来影响不同的学业成果。虽然我们没有发现该干预措施在坚持方面对代表性不足的学生有不同的效果，但我们发现对成绩的积极影响与这些学生坚持度的提高有关。结果表明，在入门课程中实施效用价值干预措施可以成为促进学生在整个大学期间坚持生物医学科学专业学习的有效策略。
