Claire Macero, HSTEM ’23S

Themes: DEI, Outreach

Disconnect Addressed: Advantages contributing to STEM success / Deficiency models often focus on individuals closing gaps

Goal: This project will propose a group peer tutoring system to provide academic and social support to students who feel out of place in STEM.

Group Peer Tutoring Download

Outlining the Need

The Leaky Pipeline in STEM

Black, Hispanic, disabled, and non-male workers are currently underrepresented in many areas of the STEM workforce, according to the Pew Research Center (“STEM Jobs See Uneven Progress in Increasing Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity,” 2021). The 2021 NCSES “Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities” report shows that this disparity widens further in the populations with postgraduate degrees. As STEM jobs, especially those requiring higher-level degrees, are among the highest paid in the current job market (Eaton et al., 2019), the underrepresentation of certain groups exacerbates the existing socioeconomic inequality. These data can be explained in part by the makeup of undergraduate STEM majors who persist to earn bachelor’s degrees. Riegle-Crumb et al. (2019) found that students of color entering college report equal or greater interest in STEM in comparison to their White counterparts, but they are more likely to exit STEM majors. The same is not true for humanities majors, who have similar persistence across ethnic groups. This points to one of the first breaks in the leaky pipeline that results in a disproportionately homogenous makeup of the STEM workforce.

Belonging Uncertainty

One factor that may increase the attrition rate of underrepresented-minority students in STEM majors is the experience of belonging uncertainty, the doubt that an individual can fit into a social environment due to a held identity (Smith et al., 2014). Increased feelings of belonging uncertainty were correlated with decreased academic performance in a study conducted in general chemistry courses (Edwards et al., 2022). Decreased academic performance subsequently worsened perceptions of social belonging, creating a negative feedback loop. In this way, courses inherently present a barrier to academic success for minority students. In order to close the gaps in the STEM workforce, there must be increased academic as well as social support in undergraduate STEM courses, particularly at the introductory level.

My Amherst Experience

I experienced strong imposter syndrome during my first few STEM courses at Amherst. In addition to this, I found that invisible illness can be very isolating in college. While I did connect with classmates after a couple semesters, I think that additional structure that facilitates peer interaction over course material would have allowed for quicker social integration.

Words from HSTEM Students

Amherst is not isolated from these experiences of belonging uncertainty in STEM. Here are a few quotes from ’23 HSTEM students that identify a need for increased support both socially and academically.

How can we improve support in STEM?

“‘The number of PEERs [Persons Excluded because of their Ethnicity or Race] who are STEM leaders will increase, thus providing compelling role models for our students and reducing imposter syndrome. Inclusive diversity will become a central principle in faculty recruiting and will be the responsibility of the hiring institution and not the candidate’ (“Race Matters,” Asai, 2020). I wonder how true this will hold, given what we also read about how having a college education does not always guarantee that underrepresented minorities will end up working in STEM in equal proportions. I think it will certainly help, but I wonder what other factors down the line might cause PEERs to stop pursuing a career in STEM beyond college, and what we can do to help resolve these issues to create a more fair and equitable landscape for underrepresented minorities in STEM.”
Jackson Lee, Week 6

Barriers to academic support

“Since coming to Amherst, I have felt that both office hours and TA help sessions are usually not functioning as intended, especially in the introductory courses. Mirroring many of the opinions in the interview project, I personally have had, and have seen others have, times where the risk of embarrassment and/or presumed intimidation from peers/professors prevents attending office hours, and asking the professor for an individual office hour meeting proves to be too high of a hurdle.”
Kazuki Tayama, Week 1

Belonging uncertainty in STEM

“For example, in my experience, moving up in chemistry has become increasingly White or Asian-American, and many underrepresented peers I shared introductory classes with are no longer doing STEM or chemistry. This can be discouraging as, even if the people I interact with at Amherst and in these places can be inclusive, it sometimes might feel like I do not belong. The idea of this feeling of “belonging” in STEM is central to success and was also discussed in the readings, as things like a lack of representation or stereotype perpetuation all lead to the lower retention rate of underrepresented minorities in STEM.”
Kim Agosto, Week 6

Proposing Group Peer Tutoring

How will group peer tutoring help?

This project will aim to address belonging uncertainty in the academic setting by proposing the implementation of a modified peer tutoring program. While peer tutoring is widely available, the one-on-one model assumes that a student’s lack of success in a course results from academic struggle alone. Edwards et al. (2022) provides evidence that this is not the case: it is also necessary to cultivate a sense of social belonging. Group peer tutoring, also known as Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), provides support both at the academic and social levels. Implementation of PLTL in introductory chemistry courses resulted in significant improvements of passing rate, notable with the greatest improvement in the underrepresented minority student groups (Lewis, 2011). In addition to academic improvement, PLTL studies reported higher retention of participating students in biology, chemistry, and organic chemistry (WIlson and Varma-Nelson, 2016). These two outcomes strongly support the addition of a group tutoring system for introductory STEM courses at this college.

Goal of Group Peer Tutoring

Provide academic support to students who are struggling
Cultivate community within STEM courses and majors
Reduce belonging uncertainty of students with underrepresented identities by facilitating social connections
Improve introductory-course experience and retention in major

Possible metrics to measure program success

Group peer tutoring enrollment
Academic performance of participants
Pre- and post-participation surveys of social perception
Retention rates in major of participants vs non-participants

Partnering and Moving Forward

This project builds on the expansive support systems that the college already has in place, as well as HSTEM student projects from previous semesters.

The current peer tutoring system remains an effective method for academic support. This group peer tutoring proposal aims to add a new tutoring option that does not remove the existing individual tutoring, as this may be preferable to some students.
Inspiration for this project comes in part from “Letters to Quell the Imposter” by Lorelle Cortés Sang and “Pull Out the Weeds: An HSTEM Approach to Ending Weed-Out Courses” by Caroline Uyeno, works from previous HSTEM semesters.

Future directions of research include group tutoring pedagogy and possible integration with a peer mentorship program.

Group peer tutoring has not yet been proposed by an HSTEM student. I hope that HSTEM students in the coming semesters find interest in this model and continue to develop the project.

Steps forward:

Present group peer tutoring proposal to the Office of Student Affairs
Partner with introductory STEM instructors to offer group peer tutoring for these courses
Advertise the program to STEM students

Potential Campus Partners:

Office of Student Affairs
- Among many other services, the Office of Student Affairs oversees the current peer tutoring program. For implementing a group peer tutoring system, this office will be a valuable resource in addressing questions of feasibility and logistics of starting this new program, as well as inviting dialogue over how the current tutoring system is beneficial but may still be improved.
Moss Quantitative Center
- The Moss Quantitative Center provides support to faculty and students in quantitative courses. It offers individual help appointments for some courses and has space for students to study. The Q center would be a valuable partner for the location of group tutoring and to ask questions for scheduling.