Understanding Differences in Underrepresented Minorities and First-Generation Student Perceptions in the Introductory Biology Classroom

Abstract

We used quantitative methods to better understand the perceptions of students in an introductory biology course (Biology 101) at a small, liberal arts college (SLAC) that is also a primarily white institution (PWI). In pre/post surveys, we asked students questions related to their attitudes and beliefs about their professor, classmates, and Biology 101. We were especially interested in the responses and outcomes of underrepresented minorities (URM) and first-generation (FG) students. Our findings suggest URM and FG students have a decreased sense of belonging and increased perceptions of exclusion and differential treatment due to race. These findings can explain, in part, the disparity in Biology 101 grade and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) attrition.

Keywords: attitude; disparities; first-generation; introductory biology; kindness cues; perception; stereotype threat; survey; underrepresented minorities.

FIG 1

Distribution of Biology 101 grades by group and ACT Math score from registrar data. Each facet displays students with ACT Math score in various intervals (e.g., 18–22). $\overline{\text{urm}}$ ($\overline{\text{FG}}$) denotes the not-URM (not-FG) groups. The institution’s grading system inserts grades AB, BC, and CD as intermediate grades between the usual A, B, C, and D grades; W denotes a withdrawal, and F, failure. The number of students for each column from left to right are 31, 13, 30, 55, 28, 17, 43, 182, 10, 14, 43, 180.

FIG 2

Mean and 95% confidence intervals for post-survey questions by group; 5 = strongly agree and 1 = strongly disagree. $\overline{\mathit{urm}} \overline{\mathit{FG}}$ denotes the not-URM not-FG groups. ANOVA was used to calculate P. The mean and standard deviation for these data can be found in Table S4.

FIG 3

Registrar data reflecting persistence of Biology 101 students from 2015 to 2016 who began Biology 101 intending to complete a STEM major by group (A, not-URM; B, URM). The relative size of the boxes displays the proportion of those students that by 2020 earned a degree in the particular areas (SS, social science; HUM, humanities; NRSG, nursing; STEM, science, technology, engineering, mathematics; none, no degree obtained), and boxes are colored by the average Biology 101 grade of each group. The degree-success and grades of URM students are less than those of not-URM students. The outcome disparity between URM and not-URM is quite significantly different as measured by a 2 × 6 Fisher exact test (P < 0.001). $\overline{\mathit{urm}}$ denotes the not-URM group. Note that disaggregation into our usual four groups results in very small cell counts; details can be found in Table S2.