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

许多开始上大学时打算主修科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域的学生最终没有在STEM领域获得学位。解决学生离开STEM专业的问题很重要，因为可能很快就会出现STEM专业人员短缺，无法满足国家的需求。先前的研究表明，一些学生失去了学习STEM专业的动力，尤其是在学习STEM入门课程时。学习理论表明，当学生看到参与一项活动的价值，因为它与他们未来的计划有关，即它的效用价值，动机可能会增强。这个改进本科STEM教育（IUSE: EHR）参与式学生学习1级项目旨在通过开发、实施和评估普通化学课程的综合效用价值干预（UVI）来服务于国家利益。UVI旨在提高学生对普通化学课程有用性的认识，这是许多STEM专业所必需的，从而增强学生坚持普通化学和STEM专业的动力。埃克尔斯的期望值理论解释了UVI设计背后的假设机制，该理论解释了个人的敬业度是他们对成功的期望和主观任务价值（包括效用价值）的结果。基于这一理论的一个期望是，提高学生的普通化学实用价值，会增强学生的坚持力，从而提高学习成绩，同时也会增加学生今后学习类似课程的动力。项目团队将在南佛罗里达大学第一学期普通化学的三个课程部分和第二学期普通化学的三个课程部分实施UVI。UVI将包括提示每个学生将普通化学主题与他们的未来计划联系起来，提供个性化的反馈，其中包含针对每个学生确定的计划量身定制的化学相关新闻文章的链接，以及关于普通化学主题对STEM职业和日常生活应用的适用性的简要介绍。干预设计还将通过对高年级本科化学学生和STEM专业人员的访谈来了解普通化学的实用价值。UVI将使用准实验设计进行评估，该设计将检查干预组和对照组学生在课程前和课程后的感知效用和课程表现，以及他们在干预后一年的STEM课程注册情况。此外，团队将进行焦点小组，以提供干预对学生感知化学效用价值的影响的定性描述。UVI的实施将直接影响超过1200名学生，推广计划包括专业发展和支持另外30名普通化学教师将UVI纳入他们的课程。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.