Promoting Motivation for Underrepresented Groups in Undergraduate Biology Courses

提高本科生物学课程中代表性不足群体的积极性

• 批准号: 9049985
• 负责人: Judith M. Harackiewicz
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9049985
• 关键词: Accounting; Achievement; Attention; Biological Sciences; Biology; Drops; Educational process of instructing; Effectiveness; Employee Strikes; Enrollment; Expectancy; Faculty; Generations; Goals; Health; Intervention; Laboratories; Laboratory Study; Long-Term Effects; Measures; Mediator of activation protein; Methods; Motivation; Outcome; Performance; Persons; Population; Psychology; Randomized; Research; Research Personnel; Science; Series; Students; Talents; Techniques; Testing; Underrepresented Minority; Underrepresented Students; Universities; Wisconsin; Work; Writing; career; cohort; college; ethnic minority population; improved; innovation; interdisciplinary collaboration; interest; intervention effect; longitudinal design; novel; psychologic; research study; social; theories; university student

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is critically important to promote interest and motivation for underrepresented ethnic minority (UEM) students in introductory biology courses, because these courses serve as a gateway to successive courses and careers in the biomedical sciences. We propose an experimental field test of two social psychological interventions: the values affirmation technique focuses on the student's personal values; the utility value intervention focuses on the value or usefulness of course content. To date, neither intervention has been tested in college biology courses, nor have these interventions been tested together in the same course. We believe that these interventions can be combined to promote motivation and performance for underrepresented students in biology. We propose a large-scale field experiment with 2200 students in introductory biology courses at UW, as well a set of complementary laboratory experiments to examine the mechanisms through which these interventions work. We will evaluate the separate and combined effects of Values Affirmation and Utility Value interventions in the year-long introductory biology sequence taken by biological science majors at UW- Madison. We will follow four cohorts (N=2200) of introductory biology students longitudinally from their enrollment in the introductory biology course through their graduation from college. Our goals are 1) to test the effectiveness of the values affirmation intervention in introductory biology classes for threatened groups (underrepresented ethnic minority students and first-generation students) for the following outcomes: retention in the course, course performance, and interest in biology 2) Examine the effectiveness of the utility value intervention in introductory biology classes for threatened groups for the following outcomes: retention in the course, course performance, and interest in biology, 3) Test the two interventions in combination to determine whether they work additively or synergistically to promote motivation and performance in biology courses for threatened groups. In addition, we plan to test the long-term effects of both interventions on students' subsequent course-taking, choice of major, and career plans at graduation, using a longitudinal design, testing our hypothesis that these interventions should be effective in promoting motivation for biomedical careers. Finally, we will examine the mechanisms through which these interventions work, by systematically varying the parameters of the interventions and measuring hypothesized mediators in the large-scale, longitudinal field experiment and by conducting experimental research in laboratory studies.

描述（由申请人提供）：提高代表性不足的少数族裔 (UEM) 学生对生物学入门课程的兴趣和动力至关重要，因为这些课程是通向生物医学科学后续课程和职业的门户。我们提出了两种社会心理干预的实验现场测试：价值观肯定技术侧重于学生的个人价值观；效用价值干预侧重于课程内容的价值或有用性。迄今为止，这两种干预措施都尚未在大学生物学课程中进行过测试，也没有在同一门课程中一起测试这些干预措施。我们相信，这些干预措施可以结合起来，以提高生物学领域代表性不足的学生的积极性和表现。我们提议在威斯康星大学开展一项由 2200 名学生参加的生物学入门课程的大规模现场实验，以及一系列补充性实验室实验，以检验这些干预措施的作用机制。我们将评估威斯康辛大学麦迪逊分校生物科学专业学生为期一年的生物学入门课程中价值观肯定和效用价值干预的单独和综合效果。我们将纵向跟踪四组（N = 2200）生物学入门学生，从他们注册生物学入门课程到大学毕业。我们的目标是 1) 测试在针对受威胁群体（代表性不足的少数民族学生和第一代学生）的入门生物学课程中价值肯定干预对于以下结果的有效性：课程保留、课程表现和对生物学的兴趣 2) 检查针对受威胁群体的入门生物学课程中效用价值干预对以下结果的有效性：课程保留、课程表现和对生物学的兴趣，3) 测试 将两种干预措施结合起来，以确定它们是相加还是协同作用，以促进受威胁群体的生物课程的积极性和表现。此外，我们计划采用纵向设计来测试这两种干预措施对学生后续选课、专业选择和毕业时职业规划的长期影响，检验我们的假设，即这些干预措施应能有效促进生物医学职业的动力。最后，我们将通过系统地改变干预措施的参数并在大规模纵向现场实验中测量假设的中介因素以及在实验室研究中进行实验研究来研究这些干预措施的作用机制。