"They Have Shown Me It Is Possible to Thrive within STEM": Incorporating Learning Assistants in General Chemistry Enhances Student Belonging and Confidence.

ABSTRACT: Students often experience social and psychological barriers to success in General Chemistry, which is a key gateway to many students' science pathways. Learning assistants (LAs) have the potential to reduce these barriers and to strengthen students' sense of belonging in General Chemistry and STEM more broadly. Here, we used a 17-item Likert scale to determine whether incorporating LAs into General Chemistry I and II enhances students' sense of belonging in these courses. The incorporation of LAs into General Chemistry I had a significant positive effect and a medium to large effect size for students in all student groups examined: women and men; students in both racially and ethnically underrepresented and well-represented groups; first- and continuing-generation students. In General Chem

SUBMITTER: Clements KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10653077 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature