A controlled intervention to improve freshman retention in a STEM-based physiology major

Abstract

Using a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning lens, this study systematically examined if a targeted intervention in at-risk students within a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based physiology program would elicit positive student perceptions and higher retention rates into the second year. Those students who were considered at risk for attrition (retention; <i>n</i> = 82) were compared against a control group (non-retention; <i>n</i> = 165), and outcomes were evaluated with an End-of-Semester Survey and university enrollment data. Students in the retention group reported more favorable responses to questions pertaining to a first-year seminar course and academic advising. By the start of the following (spring 2019) semester, 48 students transferred out of the program (20%) with little difference between groups (non-retention 19%; retention 22%). At the start of fall 2019 term, 55% of the 2018 freshman class were retained within the program (non-retention 66%; retention 39%), and 85% were retained within the university (non-retention 91%, retention 74%). The intervention was successful in eliciting positive student perceptions of the major, but did not improve retention of at-risk students within the physiology major.