Preliminary investigation of a social cognitive intervention in early courses

Miami University, Oxford OH

Investigators

Abstract

Currently, about a third of the students enrolled in a required pre-engineering class do not earn the required minimum grade for the engineering major, creating an obstacle to their timely completion of an engineering degree. The proposed research examines whether a self-reflection exercise in which students consider how they might have done better on the first exam in the class helps students perform better and increases their likelihood of successfully completing the course by helping them understand their performance and form strategies for self-improvement. The proposed intervention builds on recent research that finds that thinking about "what might have been" can change behavior and improve future outcomes, as well as an emphasis in engineering education to promote reflection and develop skills for lifelong learning among engineering majors. If successful, this intervention would offer a new, brief, virtually free new tool that instructors could use to boost student success. The project also includes workshops and symposia presented at conferences and universities nationwide in order to train engineering educators in the intervention approach. The research further improves engineering and STEM education by increasing student participation in research through the involvement of undergraduate and graduate students, including students from under-represented groups, in data collection and analysis of the proposed studies. The project leverages cutting-edge theory in social cognitive psychology to explore a novel brief intervention aimed at helping students respond adaptively to challenges. In three studies, the project examines how students' thoughts about "what might have been," (counterfactual thoughts, or CFs), connect to course performance. The first study examines whether students who have CFs are more successful at improving their performance, and the second tests whether instructing students to list CFs improves performance. A third study compares outcomes for course sections using a newly-developed counterfactual reflection intervention to traditional course sections. Following validation of the intervention, workshops for engineering and cognate faculty will promote broader adoption on campus, at universities nationwide, and as part of national engineering and cognate conferences. This research thus translates the most recent models of regret (Summerville, 2011) to educational applications to identify potential boundary conditions for the effects of CFs on STEM performance, and also offers meaningful contributions to basic research in social psychology and engineering education. The proposal targets broader impacts goals of improving STEM education by boosting student success in engineering, eventually improving primary STEM education through inclusion in curriculum aimed at K-12 teachers, and increasing student participation in research through the involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in data collection and analysis of the proposed studies. The proposal also targets goals of improving participation of underrepresented groups. Two of the three PIs are female, the majority of undergraduate researchers involved in the project are female, and the undergraduate and graduate student researchers include members of underrepresented racial groups, first-generation college students, and recently separated military veterans. Finally, this research will be disseminated to both the research community and to society at large through workshops, conference presentations, publications in engineering education, STEM education, and psychology journals, and contacts in the popular media.