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Chemistry instruction should provide students a rationale for appreciating chemistry as a useful discipline, which is a particular challenge given the diverse student interests within introductory chemistry courses. In this study, we introduce and evaluate an interactive assignment, called an Informative Utility Value Intervention (IUVI), meant to improve students’ perceptions of the utility of chemistry. IUVI provides students with web-based articles describing how chemistry topics are relevant to the students’ chosen career interests. IUVI was administered to second-semester general chemistry students with a quasiexperimental study design in which one section from each instructor was given the intervention, and pre-intervention measures were used to account for potential differences between groups. The results indicate that students who received the intervention reported higher perceptions of the utility of chemistry at the end of the semester and higher scores on a common final exam than students who did not receive the intervention. Results from a structural equation model indicated the IUVI was associated with improved utility perceptions and final exam scores; however, these improvements were potentially independent of each other. Therefore, the theoretical explanation that improved perceptions of utility value resulted in improved academic performance could not be supported. Overall, IUVI offers an effective and highly portable intervention which can be adopted and adapted by instructors to promote students’ utility perceptions of chemistry.
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Improving Community College Students’ Success in Math: Findings From Two Utility-Value Studies
Although designed to prepare students for future coursework or to fulfill basic degree requirements, introductory math courses often serve as barriers to student success. In two double-blind randomized field experiments, we tested the efficacy of a utility-value intervention on improving community college students’ perceived math relevance and achievement in introductory math courses. Building upon prior research, we examined whether the intervention particularly benefited first-generation and racially marginalized students. Study 1 (N = 696) was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic and within in-person classrooms, whereas Study 2 (N = 1,318) was conducted during the pandemic and within virtual learning environments. Across Studies 1 and 2, students in the utility-value condition benefited more in terms of their perceived relevance compared to their peers in the control condition. Additionally, in both studies, math relevance mediated the effects of the intervention on math grades. In Study 2, with a larger sample, the positive effect of the intervention on math relevance was more pronounced for first-generation students. Our findings imply that community colleges could significantly improve students’ academic experiences by investing in motivation-enhancing activities such as utility-value interventions in introductory math courses. This strategy could especially help first-generation students’ academic achievement and retention rates.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2000507
- PAR ID:
- 10526866
- Publisher / Repository:
- Taylor and Francis
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Journal of Experimental Education
- ISSN:
- 0022-0973
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 24
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2023.2243610
