CITRAL Resource Library

While there are various issues within education, the ways in which these problems are identified and named are just as important to the research process as the efforts to actually address them. Understanding the language of deficiency is crucial to bring to light how even critical scholars are not immune to reproducing ideologies of deficiency when it comes to minoritized students.

Around 50% of Biology students leave the major by the end of the second year at UCSB. This article assesses the impact of incorporating more course structure and active-learning techniques on student retention, sense of belonging, and academic performance. To do so, the authors designed an increased-structure intervention course and compared the outcomes to the normative Introductory Biology course. Enrollees in the intervention course performed better on assessments, had a significantly higher sense of student belonging, and were more likely to proceed to Introductory Biology II.

Members of the Joint Working Group on Improving Underrepresented Minorities (URMs) Persistence in STEM suggest stronger focus on institutional barriers. They offer five recommendations that capitalize on known successes, recognize the need for accountability, and are framed to facilitate greater progress in the future. The impact of these recommendations rests upon enacting the first recommendation: to track successes and failures at the institutional level and collect data that help explain the existing trends.

Inclusive teaching is most effective when the academic experience is based on relationships and dialogue. The other components that stem from that dialogue point to the environment and activities created to sustain the dialogue, as well as the external resources leveraged to support it. Pedagogical practices that improve sense of belonging and self-efficacy help reinforce a classroom climate that is inclusive.

Instructor Talk is present and abundant across a wide range of courses, instructors, and institutions. While ?90% of Instructor Talk samples could be characterized using the originally published Instructor Talk framework, new categories emerged, which drove the development of a Negatively Phrased Instructor Talk framework, complementary to the original framework, now referred to as “Positively Phrased” Instructor Talk.

Little is known about whether community college students’ exposure to faculty and advisors at 4 year institutions early in their educational journey has positive long-term outcomes for transfer students. This study fills this gap through longitudinal survey data, showing that such exposure supports an upward transfer process.