What Questions Are on the Minds of STEM Undergraduate Students and How Can They Be Addressed?

Abstract

Addressing common student questions in introductory STEM courses early in the term is one way that instructors can ensure that their students have all been presented with information about how to succeed in their courses. However, categorizing student questions and identifying evidence-based resources to address student questions takes time, and instructors may not be able to easily collect and respond to student questions at the beginning of every course. To help faculty effectively anticipate and respond to student questions, we 1) administered surveys in multiple STEM courses to identify common student questions, 2) conducted a qualitative analysis to determine categories of student questions (e.g., what are best practices for studying, how can in- and out-of- course time be effectively used), and 3) collaboratively identified advice on how course instructors can answer these questions. Here, we share tips, evidence-based strategies, and resources from faculty that instructors can use to develop their own responses for students. We hope that educators can use these common student questions as a starting point to proactively address questions throughout the course and that the compiled resources will allow instructors to easily find materials that can be considered for their own courses.

Promoting Students’ Interaction in Higher Education: A Reciprocal Interview Activity Carried out during the First Class Session in Management Subjects

“…Among the available options, our choice was to perform a reciprocal interview activity, as explained in detail in Section 2.1. This activity has been carried out successfully in different sessions during the first day of class of a subject [17,20,36], in line with other research studies that have found that asking the students the proper questions may be very effective [25,37]. It should be noted that it is out of the scope of this study to compare the reciprocal interview activity with a 'one-way' speech-based approach for a first day of class session.…”

Structure and flexibility: systemic and explicit assignment extensions foster an inclusive learning environment

“…Instructors teaching large introductory classes have a unique opportunity to assist first-year students who have recently transitioned from high school (Meaders et al, 2020). The first experiences in college can have a profound impact (Lane et al, 2021), and instructors should share effective learning strategies and time management techniques, which are known to be the most common concerns voiced by college students (Meaders et al, 2021).…”

“…While extensions may be created with the intent to allow students to complete their work and increase their alignment with the course goals, they may be taken advantage of to seek a higher letter grade. Students in large STEM courses have a lot of ideas and expectations (Meaders et al, 2020(Meaders et al, , 2021; therefore, the instructors' efforts in designing an unbiased extension system should be student-centered and include the analysis of student perceptions and the system's impact on final grades.…”

Am I getting through? Surveying students on what messages they recall from the first day of STEM classes

“…Our results support that instructors attend to the sociocultural communities within their courses to different degrees through the use of non-content talk and that overall students detect the messages shared by their instructors. Students in introductory courses hold a variety of concerns as well as course anxiety at the beginning of the term (England et al, 2019 ; Meaders et al, 2020 ), and the first day of class and language used by instructors provides an opportunity to directly address student questions and alleviate concerns (Hsu & Goldsmith, 2021 ; Meaders et al, 2021 ). Because student perceptions of instructor support are negatively correlated with student anxiety (Schussler et al, 2021 ) and difficulty in accessing help for course work is a large factor in STEM attrition (Seymour et al, 2019 ), non-content talk on the first day of class may be a key tool instructors can use to signal support and availability for their students.…”