Author(s):
Need: This work serves the need to understand the effective implementation of team learning and its role in student engagement, persistence, and success in STEM students in a two-year college context with diverse student populations. Guiding Question: This project will address how to make team learning effective in two-year college STEM learning environments, particularly those serving large numbers of students from underrepresented groups and non-traditional students. Outcomes: We present the preliminary results of a quantitative and qualitative survey of over 350 students at Highline College, a minority-serving two-year college in the Seattle metropolitan area. The survey utilized multiple scales, measuring sense of belonging, independence, Interdependence, self-efficacy, engagement in group work, perception of the effectiveness of group work on learning, and perception of the effectiveness of group work on intercultural communication skills. The racial and gender characteristics of those taking the survey were within a few percentage points of the demographic makeup of the Highline student body as a whole, although the students taking the survey were 70% STEM students and 20% non-STEM, which does not reflect the student population. Broader Impacts: We have found some surprising results that have implications for implementing team learning in MSI and 2YCs, as well as for the application of other results from studies at PWI or PUIs. For instance, students identifying either as Arab, Middle Eastern, or North African or as Black / African American were higher in Institutional Belongingness than white or multiracial students. First-generation students also indicated a higher sense of belonging. Given that previous studies have correlated belongingness with retention and other measures of student success, and that institutional belongingness is typically greater in white students, it suggests that studies of institutional belongingness and instructional strategies may need to be adjusted for institutional demographics. This study will also help inform ways to create an inclusive classroom climate as a strategy to retain URMs in STEM and strengthen the transfer pathway from two-year to four-year institutions.
Coauthors
Matthew Graham, University Of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon; Eric M. D. Baer, Highline College, Des Moines, WA
