Role of Gender and Use of Supplemental Instruction in a Required Freshman Chemistry Course by Engineering Students on their Course Grades and Subsequent Academic Success

A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Pre-College Preparation and Use of Supplemental Instruction during the First Year on GPA and Retention for Women in Engineering

“…Lastly, these findings corroborate the results of previously-published research that found a similar relationship between firstsemester and subsequent academic performance. For example, our previous studies found a positive correlation between students' final grades in a first-year chemistry course and their subsequent fourth-semester GPA [2]. Together with these current findings, the importance of first-year academic performance can be further stressed as a predictive metric of future academic success.…”

“…An interpretation of this finding could be that female students with no pre-enrollment college credit are more likely to reach out for extra help during their firstyear than their male peers who also have no pre-enrollment college credit. It has been found both in this paper and in previously published research that female students are more likely to use SI than males [2]. Focusing on students entering college with no prior earned college credit, it is possible that this increased likelihood for females to use SI compared to males could explain how the use of SI helped first-year female students lacking advanced coursework in high school to achieve higher five-year retention and graduation GPAs than their male counterparts.…”

“…Although students initially may pursue SI to simply better understand material in a particular course, Grillo and Leist [4] reported that students who took advantage of academic support also had higher GPAs and increased likelihoods of graduating compared to their peers. Furthermore, students who found SI useful had a greater probability of perceiving their studies as easier to master than they previously expected [2]. Lindsay et al [13] have noted that students who attended SI were more likely to support each other academically, contributing to an individual student's social and academic integration.…”

“…This paper builds upon longitudinal research assessing the impact of SI usage among students in an engineering program. Our previous research has shown that undergraduates who regularly used SI in first-year general chemistry had higher GPAs in a later semester and at graduation compared to those who did not [2]. We also have reported that females who used SI for first-year general chemistry had a higher GPA after three semesters than males who used SI, but females who did not use SI had a lower third-semester GPA than their male counterparts [1].…”

“…We also have reported that females who used SI for first-year general chemistry had a higher GPA after three semesters than males who used SI, but females who did not use SI had a lower third-semester GPA than their male counterparts [1]. Furthermore, it was observed that females found SI to be more helpful in general than their male counterparts [2]. Although this research has provided some insight into post-first year academic success, it has not yet analyzed student success through graduation.…”