Improving Attributions in Undergraduate Pre-Calculus for STEM Success

This project aims to serve the national interest by helping to increase the success and persistence of undergraduate students taking pre-calculus, a critical gateway course for STEM majors. Recent educational policy changes at both the secondary and university levels have contributed to high enrollment in university pre-calculus to provide foundational support before matriculating to calculus.

To effectively navigate this gatekeeping course, it is important that students are equipped with strategies to succeed in this course and overcome potential setbacks that can deter achievement and retention in STEM. As a result, this project aims to implement a program that intends to help students develop adaptive ways to interpret and overcome potential setbacks in pre-calculus.

This intervention includes exposure to campus resources and the promotion of self-reflection of learning and study strategies. The project has the potential to increase students' motivation, self-efficacy, achievement in math, and persistence in math and STEM, especially for first-generation and minoritized populations in STEM (e.g., women). The projects' focus on Latinx and first-generation college students at a Hispanic Serving Institution also addresses a critical need to broaden participation in STEM.

To examine the combined effectiveness of campus resources, attribution retraining, and a pedagogical tool to encourage and guide self-reflection on one's performance on a test (an exam wrapper), the project uses a quasi-experimental multigroup design offering three conditions: (1) a control group offering campus resources, (2) a group offering attribution retraining with campus resources, and (3) a group offering attribution retraining with campus resources and exam wrappers. Pre and post-surveys will be used to examine whether participants in each condition differ in student motivation, achievement, persistence in math and STEM, causal attributions, and resource use as a result of the intervention.

Moderating effects of contextual variables and demographic characteristics also will be examined. The project goals address gaps in the existing literature by offering a double treatment design that focuses on Latinx first-generation college students, not previously studied in the attribution retraining motivation research. This project has the potential to advance critical insights about the ways motivation intervention research can impact STEM outcomes over time and encourage achievement in a high-stakes critical gatekeeping course.

The results of this project and the materials developed will be disseminated through conference presentations, peer review papers, and other media sources (e.g., webinars and podcasts). 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.