Abstract:

Supplemental Instruction (SI) was introduced into the San Francisco State University College of Science & Engineering curriculum in 1999. The goal was to improve student performance and retention and to decrease the time to degree in STEM majors. While we for the most part developed a program similar that of the International Center for Supplemental Instruction at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, we discovered several variations that significantly improved our outcomes. First and foremost, we created SI courses that require attendance, which results in higher student performance outcomes compared to drop-in options. Second, at SFSU the SI courses are led by pairs of undergraduate student facilitators (who are all STEM majors) trained in active learning strategies. Each year, more than half of our facilitators return to teach for another year. Thus, each section has a returning “experienced” facilitator who works with a new “novice” facilitator.

SI classes are cooperative learning environments where students participate in learning activities that complement the course material, focusing on student misconceptions and difficulties, construction of a scaffolded knowledge base, applications involving problem-solving, and articulation of constructs with peers. The students enrolled in the SI classes benefit by interacting with role models, often senior undergraduate STEM majors, who help them in many ways. This peer support has been used to improve study and problem-solving skills by demonstrating strategies that were effective for them, develop teamwork and oral communications skills, and, for under-represented minority (URM) students, provide validation that students “like themselves” can succeed in science majors. All of these benefits contribute to the overall increase in first-year students’ success and persistence in their STEM majors. Third, the SI courses were created with a distinct course prefix and listed as courses that generate revenue and make data access available for comparison studies. Results are presented that compare SI impact by gender and with groups under-represented in STEM disciplines.

Keywords:

Supplemental Instruction, peer mentoring, STEM, active learning.