Development and Evaluation of a Comprehensive Utility Value Intervention for General Chemistry

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Many students who start college intending to major in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field ultimately do not complete a degree in a STEM field. Addressing the issue of students leaving STEM majors is important because there may soon be a shortage of STEM professionals to meet the Nation’s demands. Prior research shows that some students experience a loss of motivation to pursue a STEM major particularly while taking introductory STEM courses. Learning theory suggests that motivation may be enhanced when a student sees the value of engaging with an activity due to its relevance for their future plans, referred to as its utility value. This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) Engaged Student Learning Level 1 project aims to serve the national interest by developing, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive utility value intervention (UVI) for general chemistry courses. The UVI will be designed to improve students’ perceptions of the usefulness of general chemistry coursework, which is required for many STEM majors, and thus enhance students’ motivation to persist in general chemistry and STEM majors. The hypothesized mechanism underlying the design of the UVI is informed by Eccles’ Expectancy Value Theory, which explains an individual’s engagement as the result of their expectations for success and subjective task value, including utility value. An expectation based on this theory is that improving students’ utility value of general chemistry will enhance students’ persistence and result in improved academic performance, as well as motivation to engage in similar courses in the future. The project team will implement the UVI in three course sections of first-semester General Chemistry and three course sections of second-semester General Chemistry at the University of South Florida. The UVI will include prompts for each student to relate general chemistry topics to their future plans, provide individualized feedback that incorporates links to chemistry-related news articles tailored to the plans each student identifies, and brief presentations on the applicability of general chemistry topics to STEM careers and everyday life applications. The intervention design will also be informed by interviews with senior undergraduate chemistry students and STEM professionals regarding the utility value of the general chemistry. The UVI will be evaluated using a quasi-experimental design that will examine intervention and comparison group students’ pre- and post-course perceived utility and course performance, as well as their STEM course enrollments one-year after the intervention. In addition, the team will conduct focus groups to provide a qualitative description of the impact of the intervention on students’ perceived utility value of chemistry. The implementation of the UVI will directly impact over 1200 students, and the dissemination plan includes professional development and support for thirty additional general chemistry instructors to incorporate UVIs into their courses. The NSF IUSE: EHR program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.