The Influence of Preconceptions, Experience, and Gender on Use of Supplemental Instruction and Academic Success in a Freshman Chemistry Course for Engineers

Abstract

is a fifth year undergraduate student completing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering Management at Northeastern University. He has been involved in the Connections Chemistry Review program and first year engineering tutoring for four years. Tyler has held a coop position at Genzyme, Amgen, and McKinsey and Company.

A Scoping Literature Review of Engineering Thriving to Redefine Student Success

“…In addition to context-specificity, individual papers in our review solely focused on the experiences of a specific population of undergraduate students. Examples include only Black or African American students (Hughes et al 2011;Martin et al 2016), first-year students (Doolen & Biddlecombe, 2014;French et al 2005;Liu et al 2015;Mazumder, 2010;Reid & Ferguson, 2011;Wickliff et al 2017), students from a single engineering discipline (Allen & Peirce-Cottler, 2008;Bledsoe & Flick, 2012;Hotle & Garrow, 2016;Welch et al 2015), or engineering students taking non-engineering courses, such as general chemistry (Cole et al 2018;Coletti et al 2013;Kaeli et al 2017;Shapiro et al 2016). Focusing on the distinct experiences of certain demographic groups is tremendously valuable in understanding engineering student success for these groups, and these individual papers in our review provided the foundation for us to synthesize multiple single-axis perspectives on engineering student success.…”

Examining First-Year Student Success and Attitudes During Challenging Times

“…The Northeastern University Connections Program was established in 2000 with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide SI for female first-year engineering students in an effort to increase retention for women in engineering. We have previously reported on the impact of SI in improving retention for women in engineering taking General Chemistry for Engineers, a fast-paced required course for all first-year engineering majors at Northeastern University [1,2]. Our findings have included a positive correlation between students' final grades in this foundational STEM course and their fourth-semester GPA [3].…”

“…SI was provided to students in two modalities: group peer tutoring in the form of weekly Connections Chemistry Reviews (led by four female upper-level engineering undergraduates who attended course lectures and offered support remotely using Zoom) and one-on-one peer tutoring available on a drop-in basis through the College of Engineering Tutoring Program (with help offered in-person by a mix of female and male upper-level engineering undergraduates). Further details for this course and its SI have been discussed previously [1][2][3].…”

“…Academic performance has been found to be positively correlated with SI attendance in female students but negatively correlated with SI attendance in male students [18]. Among pre-pandemic students, we previously found that female engineering students have a higher grade-threshold for seeking SI [1], are more likely to use SI and with a greater frequency [7], are more likely to find SI helpful [3], and receive greater benefits from SI, in terms of improved grade outcomes [2,7] compared to their male peers. Whether an individual is a first-generation college student and/or a member of an underrepresented population may also impact their self-efficacy and inclinations to seek help during their first year of college.…”

“…SI usage in the first year of an undergraduate engineering program can be an important indicator in predicting student academic achievement [2,7]. Self-efficacy is an attribute that could affect a student's willingness to utilize SI and is defined by Bandura as an individual's belief that they can successfully complete an endeavor [15].…”