Identifying and Promoting Mechanisms by which Learning Assistants Foster Belonging and Self-efficacy in Underserved Student Populations

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This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing equity in STEM education through a Learning Assistants (LAs) approach designed to support diverse student populations in large introductory STEM courses. Through this design, the project seeks to improve the impact of LAs on students’ sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and science identity as they move through the first term of introductory biology and chemistry. LAs are undergraduate students with prior experience in a course who work with an instructor to provide support for their peers currently in an active learning classroom. While LAs have been found to increase students’ belonging in gateway science courses on average, it is not known whether or how LAs can specifically support belonging and confidence for students from underserved groups. This project will advance understanding of practices that enhance the impact of LA programs for students in three groups: women, students in racially and ethnically marginalized groups, and first-generation students. Importantly, gaining a deeper understanding of how to structure an equitable LA program that serves students in large introductory courses has the potential to have a positive impact on overall student retention and success in these courses. Moreover, providing the STEM education community with equitable approaches within an LA program is likely to have implications across STEM disciplines and institution types. This project will pursue a multi-staged effort within the chemistry and biology programs of a large university to address the call for equity in STEM education. The project team will pursue three specific aims. The first is to assess the impacts of incorporating Learning Assistants (LAs) on students’ sense of belonging, science self-efficacy, and science identity across student populations in gateway STEM courses. The second is to characterize the mechanisms students from groups that have been underserved describe as important for LA impacts on belonging and science self-efficacy. The final aim is to adapt the LA program to support mechanisms that promote belonging and science self-efficacy in students from groups that have been underserved. The project will use a mixed methods approach that includes validated surveys, regression approaches to determine whether incorporating LAs has different impact on different populations of students, focus group interviews, and thematic analysis to identify patterns. Using the results from the focus group interviews, the LA program will be adapted to support structures and behaviors likely to be impactful for students from groups that have been underserved. The incorporation of these changes will be assessed using instructor reports and LA field notes. The project will be evaluated by the leadership team in collaboration with an external advisory board. Findings will be shared through conferences and publications for undergraduate STEM educators to allow the adoption and adaptation of these practices. This project has the potential to expand knowledge about mechanisms by which LA programs can reduce social and psychological barriers for students from groups that have been underserved, thereby increasing belonging in gateway courses and STEM more generally. The NSF IUSE: EHR 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 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.