Transcript No Slide Title

Research Problem
Students Withdraw from Biology Major Gateway Courses
• Although we have:
• course assessments
• content questions aligned with course learning objectives
• rubrics for oral and written communication
Only information from students who complete course
• My observation - higher proportion are African American
• Push for retention and persistence in STEM, esp. AA males
• 39% of freshmen in STEM
• 27% of freshman in poor academic standing by end fall semester
Research Question
• Research Question: What factors contribute to why students
decide to withdraw from the introductory Chemistry and Biology
courses? (Which of these factors can we control?)
• Research Context: A new (2006), public, 4-year, open access,
undergraduate only college in metro Atlanta of 8,500 students
with over 1,000 Biology majors. Diverse student population
(40% URM, 17% nontraditional and 55% female). Class size is
capped at 24 students and same instructor teaches both
lecture and lab sections.
• Who Cares?: My question is interesting because it aligns with
institutional and system-wide goals to reduce the withdrawal
rate and increase persistence in Biology (STEM).
Research Methodology
• Interview Representative Sample of Students who have
Withdrawn
• Data Mining from Applications and Placement Scores
• Test for correlation between coded interview data
(reasons) and demographic/socioeconomic/ admissions
data
• CHEM 1211 pre- or co-requisite for BIOL 1107
• Pool data from 11-12 BIOL 1107 and 25-26 CHEM 1211 sections
• Need to design interview questions
• Collect and code historical information from online withdrawal
forms (data request for how many years?)
• Faculty Member Focus Groups – code experiences (anecdotal)
Alignment of Research Question and Methodology
Question Type - What Is?
Question
Methodology
Why student withdraw?
Ask them!
Direct Alignment
Goal
To collect baseline data to inform intervention
selection and design to increases persistence
in Biology (STEM)