Liberal Arts and Sciences Division, Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove, IL 60554.
Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2022 Jun;21(2):ar24. doi: 10.1187/cbe.21-08-0216.
Many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) community college students do not complete their degree, and these students are more likely to be women or in historically excluded racial or ethnic groups. In introductory courses, low grades can trigger this exodus. Implementation of high-impact study strategies could lead to increased academic performance and retention. The examination of study strategies rarely occurs at the community college level, even though community colleges educate approximately half of all STEM students in the United States who earn a bachelor's degree. To fill this research gap, we studied students in two biology courses at a Hispanic-serving community college. Students were asked their most commonly used study strategies at the start and end of the semester. They were given a presentation on study skills toward the beginning of the semester and asked to self-assess their study strategies for each exam. We observed a significantly higher course grade for students who reported spacing their studying and creating drawings when controlling for demographic factors, and usage of these strategies increased by the end of the semester. We conclude that high-impact study strategies can be taught to students in community college biology courses and result in higher course performance.
许多科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）社区学院的学生无法完成学位，而这些学生更有可能是女性，或者属于历史上被排斥的种族或族裔群体。在入门课程中，成绩不佳可能会导致这些学生流失。实施高影响力的学习策略可以提高学习成绩和保留率。尽管社区学院教育了大约一半在美国获得学士学位的 STEM 学生，但对学习策略的研究很少在社区学院层面进行。为了填补这一研究空白，我们研究了一所西班牙裔服务社区学院的两门生物学课程的学生。在学期开始和结束时，学生被要求列出他们最常用的学习策略。在学期开始时，我们向他们介绍了学习技巧，并要求他们为每次考试评估自己的学习策略。我们观察到，在控制人口统计学因素的情况下，报告有间隔学习和绘制图表的学生的课程成绩显著提高，而且这些策略的使用在学期结束时有所增加。我们的结论是，高影响力的学习策略可以教授给社区学院生物学课程的学生，并提高课程表现。
