Improving STEM Student Success through the Integration of Learning Assistants and Co-requisite Models in First-year Courses

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving student success in first-year college courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A well-educated and diverse science and technology workforce is crucial for U.S. economic development. When students have trouble successfully completing required STEM courses in their first year, they may take longer to complete their degrees, leave STEM majors, or even leave college entirely; and these issues are more common among students from groups that have been underrepresented and underserved in their participation in STEM fields of study.

This project aims to help students in first year STEM courses by implementing two approaches that have been shown to increase college success and persistence for disadvantaged students: the co-requisite and learning assistant (LA) models. In the co-requisite model, students with less math preparation get two additional hours of support each week, allowing them to gain needed skills without having to take an extra semester of remedial math.

In the LA model, faculty redesign their courses to incorporate active learning, and are supported in the classroom by trained near-peer student facilitators (LAs). This project is significant because it will investigate the impact of combining the LA and co-requisite models in first-year math courses and of adding LAs to required first-year courses in STEM disciplines not yet well represented in the LA literature.

The goals of this project are to improve completion of STEM courses; retain more, and more diverse, students at the university and in STEM majors; and reduce time-to-graduation. Faculty professional development in the LA and co-requisite models will catalyze improvements in STEM teaching, create more engaging learning environments, and improve students’ quantitative skills.

Faculty engaged in these classroom transformations will both receive and provide additional support to one another in a Community of Practice. LAs will take a one-semester pedagogy course, meet weekly with faculty, facilitate active learning and critical thinking in class, and provide additional student support outside the classroom. This project will fill critical gaps in our understanding of the co-requisite and LA models by pursuing three objectives.

First is to study how LAs impact the effectiveness of co-requisite support sections of foundational STEM math courses. Second is to explore why LAs improve student outcomes by investigating how LAs impact students’ sense of belonging in STEM and disciplinary identity. Third, and finally is to add key data on student success, content knowledge, and belonging and identity in LA-assisted courses in Biology, Chemistry, Geoscience, and Math to the Physics-focused LA literature.

Project successes, challenges, best practices, and research results will be helpful to other institutions interested in advancing STEM teaching and reducing equity gaps in first-year gateway and foundational STEM courses. Project findings will be shared widely via conference presentations, journal articles, and a dedicated project webpage. The NSF:IUSE EDU 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.