"What Will I Experience in My College STEM Courses?" An Investigation of Student Predictions about Instructional Practices in Introductory Courses.

"What Will I Experience in My College STEM Courses?" An Investigation of Student Predictions about Instructional Practices in Introductory Courses. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2019 Dec;18(4):ar60 Authors: Meaders CL, Toth ES, Lane AK, Shuman JK, Couch BA, Stains M, Stetzer MR, Vinson E, Smith MK Abstract The instructional practices used in introductory college courses often differ dramatically from those used in high school courses, and dissatisfaction with these practices is cited by students as a prominent reason for leaving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. To better characterize the transition to college course work, we investigated the extent to which incoming expectations of course activities differ based on student demographic characteristics, as well as how these expectations align with what students will experience. We surveyed more than 1500 undergraduate students in large introductory STEM courses at three research-intensive institutions during the first week of classes about their expectations regarding how class time would be spent in their courses. We found that first-generation and first-semester students predict less lecture than their peers and that class size had the largest effect on student predictions. We also collected classroom observation data from the courses and found that students generally underpredicted the amount of lecture observed in class. This misalignment between student predic...
Source: CBE Life Sciences Education - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: CBE Life Sci Educ Source Type: research