2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Need: Attrition is a significant issue for STEM undergraduate majors: on average 49% of students transfer to another major or leave college completely by their 8th year of study, with even greater rates for STEM majors who are under-represented minorities or women. Barring financial barriers to retention, the most significant drivers of attrition are reported to be difficulty in adjusting to academic and life needs and resolving educational and occupational goals, and feelings of isolation. We posit that the former impediments are closely related to ineffective Self-Regulation of Learning (SRL), since SRL addresses an individual’s behaviors and strategies as an independent and reflective learner, and their motivation to sustain effort when challenged. We posit that the latter impediment is closely related to a lack of sense of belonging (SOB), since SOB addresses an individual’s cognition, affects, and behavior around their perceived legitimacy as a member of a community who is included, involved, valued, and accepted. Further, it documented that many students enter college with ineffective SRL, and that under-represented students like minorities and females have fewer relatable peers and so are more at risk of having a low sense of belonging in college.
So, can retention be improved by systematically training students in effective SRL strategies?

This NSF IUSE project draws upon published research of educational psychology social-cognitive frameworks around SOB (Strayhorn, 2019) and SRL (Zimmerman, 2000 and 2002), and the findings of a prior NSF-funded study and a pilot study, to uniquely develop and refine an intervention that synergistically interweaves the learning of STEM topics with developing effective SRL and building SOB.

Project: This 3-year IUSE:HER Level 1 project is completing its first year. In the first year, 80 sophomore civil engineering students received training in SRL to improve their metacognitive knowledge, awareness, and experience, and develop personalized and adaptable strategies for building effective SRL. Key findings include student perception of the importance and helpfulness of the intervention, and statistics regarding uptake of SRL, SRL effectiveness, SOB, and performance in major courses taken alongside the intervention.

Broader impacts: This project creatively incorporates evidence-based advances in educational psychology and education into undergraduate STEM education and lays the groundwork for significant institutional improvement in associates and baccalaureate STEM programs by offering a replicable, transferable, and adaptable design.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees (S. Malcom & M. Feder, Eds.). National Academies Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.17226/21739
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2021). Addressing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism in 21st Century STEMM Organizations (L. Scherer, Ed.). National Academies Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.17226/26294
Strayhorn, T. L. (2019). College Students' Sense of Belonging: A Key to Educational Success for All Students (2nd ed.). Routledge: New York, NY.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Self-Efficacy: An Essential Motive to Learn. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 1, 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1016
Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory into Practice, 42(2), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4102_2.