John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136.
Department of Kinesiology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2021 Jun;20(2):ar27. doi: 10.1187/cbe.20-05-0101.
The first-year student experience in college is a crucial time for personal and professional development, especially for students entering science, technology, education, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Unfortunately, it is also the time when students most commonly leave STEM, largely due to disconnection from faculty and peers. The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) is a program that introduces first-year undergraduates to research in a variety of fields. The program has shown positive outcomes for student success and retention in STEM fields. However, it has not been demonstrated whether this program can increase social connectedness and assurance, potentially contributing to students' longer-term retention in STEM. In this pilot study, we measured social connectedness/assurance among students before and after a 16-week course in neurophysiology. We found that combined scores of social connectedness and assurance significantly increased by the end of the course. We also found that individual constructs of social connectedness and assurance significantly increased. Furthermore, the majority of students from FRI were retained in STEM fields. We plan future studies to include collection of longitudinal data and measures to identify additional reasons that the FRI increased these positive outcomes among our student participants.
大学生的一年级经历是个人和专业发展的关键时期，特别是对于进入科学、技术、教育和数学（STEM）学科的学生。不幸的是，这也是学生最常见的离开 STEM 的时期，主要是因为与教师和同学失去了联系。新生研究计划（FRI）是一个向一年级本科生介绍各种领域研究的计划。该计划已经显示出对学生在 STEM 领域取得成功和保留的积极结果。然而，尚未证明该计划是否可以增加社交联系和保证，这可能有助于学生在 STEM 领域的长期保留。在这项试点研究中，我们在神经生理学 16 周课程前后测量了学生的社交联系/保证程度。我们发现，到课程结束时，社交联系和保证的综合得分显著增加。我们还发现，社交联系和保证的各个结构都显著增加。此外，大多数来自 FRI 的学生都留在了 STEM 领域。我们计划未来的研究包括收集纵向数据和措施，以确定 FRI 增加这些积极结果的其他原因。
