Supporting Undergraduate Biology Students’ Academic Success: Comparing Two Workshop Interventions

Abstract

College students' performance in introductory-level biology course work is an important predictor of ongoing persistence in the major. This study reports on a researcher-educator partnership that designed and compared two cocurricular workshops. Seventeen laboratory sections of an undergraduate biology course were randomly assigned to one of two educational interventions during the regularly scheduled lab class section after students had completed and received the results for the first exam. The baseline Metacognition intervention was an hourlong workshop focused on effective learning strategies and self-awareness in the learning process; the extended Metacognition plus Time Management (Metacognition+TM) intervention included the aforementioned workshop plus a second hourlong workshop on time management and procrastination. Based on three exams and self-report surveys administered before the intervention and at the end of the semester, students who participated in the Metacognition+TM intervention experienced greater increases in their exam scores and degree commitment than those in the baseline intervention. Additionally, group status moderated the effect of the intervention, as the Metacognition+TM intervention was especially effective in increasing use of time management tools by students from minoritized groups.

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