Participation in a High-Structure General Chemistry Course Increases Student Sense of Belonging and Persistence to Organic Chemistry

Abstract

A parallel series of general chemistry courses for Life Science Majors was created in an effort to support students and improve general chemistry outcomes. We created a two-quarter enhanced general chemistry course series that is not remedial, but instead implements several evidence-based teaching practices including Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), and the Learning Assistant (LA) model. We found that students who took enhanced general chemistry had higher persistence to the subsequent first organic chemistry course, and performed equally well in the organic course compared to their peers who took standard general chemistry. Students in the first enhanced general chemistry course also reported significantly higher belonging, although we were unable to determine if increased belonging was associated with the increased persistence to organic chemistry. Rather we found that the positive association between taking the enhanced general chemistry course and persistence to organic chemistry was mediated by higher grades received in the enhanced general chemistry course. Our findings highlight the responsibility we have as educators to carefully consider the pedagogical practices we use, in addition to how we assign student grades.

Figure 1

Outline of how persistence was measured in this study. Only students who enrolled in GChem1 during Fall quarter were included. Persistence was measured over three time points. First time point: Students who took OChem1 during the Spring quarter (Spring Y) or Summer session of the same academic year in which they took GChem1. Second time point: Students who took OChem1 during the following Fall quarter (Fall Y) of the subsequent academic year. Third time point: Students who took OChem1 during the following Winter quarter (Winter Z) of the subsequent academic year. These time points are cumulative.

Figure 2

Predicted values of % student persistence to the first organic chemistry course in the series at three different time points based on logistic regression models with GChem1 course as the predictor. The models controlled for term, instructor, SAT math score, and high-school GPA.

Figure 3

Predicted grades in the first organic chemistry course in the series based on linear regression models with GChem1 course as the predictor. The models controlled for the term in which organic chemistry was taken, SAT math score, and high-school GPA.

Figure 4

Predicted values of % student persistence to the first organic chemistry course in the series at three different time points based on logistic regression models with GChem1 course and race/ethnicity (classified as NALA: Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, Latinx/Hispanic, and African American/Black; or WA: White or Asian/Asian American) as predictors. The models controlled for term, instructor, sex of the student, SAT math score, and high-school GPA.

Figure 5

Predicted values of % student persistence to the first organic chemistry course in the series at three different time points based on logistic regression models with GChem1 course and sex (classified as F: female or M: male) as the predictor. The models controlled for term, instructor, race/ethnicity, SAT math score, and high-school GPA.

Figure 6

Boxplots of pre- and post- perceived belonging and belonging uncertainty factor scores for the standard and enhanced GChem1 courses. A higher factor score for perceived belonging is associated with a higher sense of belonging, while a lower factor score for belonging uncertainty is associated with a higher sense of belonging.