NSF Award
2417328
This project aims to serve the national interest by producing and testing tools to help introductory biology students acquire appropriate study strategies, monitor those skills, and evaluate their efficacy. Many students studying science face challenges in developing practical study skills. Adopting a new strategy requires students to assess their knowledge level; this process of reflection on one’s work allows them to create self-awareness. Once students are self-aware, they can evaluate and modify their study practices. This entire process is known as self-regulated learning; however, these self-evaluative processes are not commonly taught at the university level. Improving a student’s self-regulated learning can impact a student's study habits, knowledge, attitude, and performance. This project intends to involve students in different reflective practices as part of their coursework to increase self-regulated learning skills. The importance of this work lies in creating, testing, and sharing tools that can potentially help introductory-level students succeed and persist in their science studies.<br/><br/>The proposed project will engage introductory biology students in different reflective practices, focusing on motivation and self-awareness. Thus far, few studies have investigated multiple self-regulation interventions on undergraduate science students on a large scale with appropriate controls. The proposed targeted self-regulation interventions are: 1) improving student motivation through personalized feedback and increasing personal relevance of course materials through a utility value exercise, 2) improving student metacognition through reflection and evaluation of one's preferred learning strategies, and 3) improving self-regulation through a series of informational training activities that include reflection and goal-setting. This project aims to test each intervention's efficacy using a randomized control crossover design in four large introductory biology courses, serving over 2000 students annually. This experimental design will be bolstered by collecting demographic data, performance, and other survey data from multiple time points for each student. The proposed interventions will be integrated into a commonly used learning management system, with accompanying student tasks to ensure participation. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, this project intends to advance understanding of how each intervention affects students' self-regulation, motivation, and performance. Once the effectiveness of the developed resources is determined, dissemination could occur across disciplines, expanding the project's scope to positively impact learning among all undergraduate science students. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports creating, exploring, and implementing promising practices and tools.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
