Coaching to Learn: A Peer-to-Peer Intervention to Help College Students Apply and Transfer Effective Learning Strategies across STEM Courses

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by implementing a peer-based intervention that trains college students to use research-based cognitive study strategies to support academic success and retention in STEM majors. Undergraduate students who start college pursuing STEM majors often change plans after earning lower than expected grades in required introductory STEM courses. A mismatch between less effective learning strategies students typically use and more effective strategies that could be adopted contributes to this problem. A growing body of research demonstrates that college students rely heavily on ineffective learning strategies such as rote memorization and cramming. Coaching to Learn is a unique peer-to-peer intervention that empowers college students to learn, apply, and transfer effective learning strategies across STEM courses. The importance of this project stems from its novel use of an intervention that integrates concepts from cognitive psychology and discipline-based education research and embeds peer-based coaching in effective study strategies into an introductory course. This project plans to expand and rigorously test the Coaching to Learn model with a mixed-method, four-semester longitudinal investigation of outcomes, including exam scores and grades earned in Calculus 1, grades in other key STEM courses, progress toward graduation, and retention in STEM majors. Students in Calculus 1 will be randomized into treatment and control groups, and analyses will estimate the treatment effect using administrative data and pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys. These surveys, along with semi-structured interviews with participants, will allow additional analysis of students’ perceptions of the coaching program and peer coaches; their understanding, application, and transfer of the focal learning strategies; and the potential moderating effects of self-regulation and sense of belonging. Separate analysis of outcomes will be performed for populations of low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students, who may be especially likely to benefit from coaching to train effective study strategies. The broad scope of the design and evaluation of Coaching to Learn reflects the project’s long-term goal: creating a model that can be replicated with adaptation to other educational settings, including community colleges and minority serving institutions. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.