Coaching to Learn: A Peer-to-Peer Intervention to Help College Students Apply and Transfer Effective Learning Strategies across STEM Courses

该项目旨在通过实施基于同伴的干预，培养大学生使用基于研究的认知学习策略来支持STEM专业的学业成功和保留，从而为国家利益服务。开始上大学攻读STEM专业的本科生经常在所需的STEM入门课程的成绩低于预期后改变计划。学生通常使用的不太有效的学习策略与可以采用的更有效的策略之间的不匹配导致了这个问题。越来越多的研究表明，大学生严重依赖无效的学习策略，如死记硬背和死记硬背。辅导学习是一种独特的点对点干预，使大学生能够在STEM课程中学习、应用和转移有效的学习策略。这个项目的重要性源于它采用了一种新颖的干预方法，将认知心理学和基于学科的教育研究的概念结合起来，并将有效学习策略中的同伴指导嵌入到入门课程中。该项目计划扩展并严格测试“指导学习”模式，采用混合方法，对结果进行为期四个学期的纵向调查，包括考试成绩和微积分1的成绩、其他STEM关键课程的成绩、毕业进度和STEM专业的保留情况。微积分1的学生将被随机分为治疗组和对照组，分析将使用管理数据和前后及随访调查来评估治疗效果。这些调查，以及对参与者的半结构化访谈，将允许对学生对教练计划和同伴教练的看法进行额外的分析；他们对焦点学习策略的理解、应用和转移；以及自我调节和归属感的潜在调节作用。将对低收入人群、第一代和代表性不足的少数民族学生进行单独的结果分析，他们可能特别有可能从培训有效学习策略的指导中受益。“学习辅导”项目设计和评估的广泛范围反映了该项目的长期目标：创建一个可以复制并适应其他教育环境的模式，包括社区学院和少数民族服务机构。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by implementing a peer-based intervention that trains college students to use research-based cognitive study strategies to support academic success and retention in STEM majors. Undergraduate students who start college pursuing STEM majors often change plans after earning lower than expected grades in required introductory STEM courses. A mismatch between less effective learning strategies students typically use and more effective strategies that could be adopted contributes to this problem. A growing body of research demonstrates that college students rely heavily on ineffective learning strategies such as rote memorization and cramming. Coaching to Learn is a unique peer-to-peer intervention that empowers college students to learn, apply, and transfer effective learning strategies across STEM courses. The importance of this project stems from its novel use of an intervention that integrates concepts from cognitive psychology and discipline-based education research and embeds peer-based coaching in effective study strategies into an introductory course.This project plans to expand and rigorously test the Coaching to Learn model with a mixed-method, four-semester longitudinal investigation of outcomes, including exam scores and grades earned in Calculus 1, grades in other key STEM courses, progress toward graduation, and retention in STEM majors. Students in Calculus 1 will be randomized into treatment and control groups, and analyses will estimate the treatment effect using administrative data and pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys. These surveys, along with semi-structured interviews with participants, will allow additional analysis of students’ perceptions of the coaching program and peer coaches; their understanding, application, and transfer of the focal learning strategies; and the potential moderating effects of self-regulation and sense of belonging. Separate analysis of outcomes will be performed for populations of low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students, who may be especially likely to benefit from coaching to train effective study strategies. The broad scope of the design and evaluation of Coaching to Learn reflects the project’s long-term goal: creating a model that can be replicated with adaptation to other educational settings, including community colleges and minority serving institutions. 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.