Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) is an open access institution with a large proportion of typically underrepresented students in STEM. In general, many GGC students are under-prepared for college and struggle in their introductory STEM courses. To help students master course content and develop effective study strategies, a Peer Supplemental Instruction (PSI) program has been incorporated into eight gateway courses at GGC, including General Chemistry I and II. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a well-established support model that has been shown to improve student performance in traditionally challenging courses. Recent studies also show that this strategy particularly benefits underrepresented students. The PSI model at GGC requires a different implementation compared to traditional SI. GGC has small class sizes (24 – 30 students) but a large STEM population (&gt;3500 STEM majors), requiring numerous sections of each gateway STEM course. While traditional SI pairs a single peer leader with each class section, GGC’s adapted PSI model assigns 4 – 5 peer leaders to each course (such as General Chemistry I or General Chemistry II). These leaders host open PSI sessions for all students enrolled in that course. Despite the challenges inherent in this implementation, this model has shown to be effective in improving student performance and lowering DFW rates for students who regularly attend PSI sessions. Detailed analysis shows a statistically significant correlation between PSI attendance and final course grade in General Chemistry I and II for underrepresented minority (URM) students, but not for students belonging to traditionally represented groups (Caucasian and Asian backgrounds). This is of particular interest because these URM students enter GGC with significantly lower high school GPAs and tend to finish with lower average final course grades compared to their peers. PSI may therefore help to close the achievement gap between these students and their peers.<br/>

Novel supplemental instruction model for supporting underrepresented STEM students at an open access institution

2019 Spring National Meeting

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