Highline Receives National Science Foundation Grant to Study Group Learning
Highline College faculty want to hear about students’ experiences with group or team learning and are launching a survey of Highline STEM students this spring to find out.
A National Science Foundation grant of approximately $586,000 over four years will fund the survey and work to follow, which will include student interviews, faculty interviews, outcome analysis and recommended teaching interventions.
Team learning and group work is defined as “learning experiences in which students work together on the same task. Examples include but are not limited to group discussion posts, working as a group in labs, group projects, problem-solving exercises done in groups, collaborative writing assignments, group quizzes or tests.”
“Here’s what we know as faculty in STEM: Team learning, active learning and peer instruction are clearly evidence-based strategies that improve student success, and that impacts retention of underrepresented students in STEM,” physics instructor Dr. Aleya Dhanji, the principal investigator on the grant, said. “But the issue is that most of this research has been done at predominantly white, selective, four-year institutions.”
Dr. Aleya Dhanji
With 77% students of color, Highline is the most diverse higher education institution in Washington state, making it a well-suited college to conduct this research.
“We also know if you [assign] group work but then you don’t implement it through an equity lens, you can actually reinforce inequities in class,” Dr. Dhanji said of instruction, adding that unintentional consequences of group work without defined rules can lead to, by default, “white, male students in the groups doing most of the talking and most of the work.”
Figuring out what works in overcoming those inequities is what Dr. Dhanji and her team, co-principal investigators psychology instructor Dr. Yay-Hyung Cho and geology instructor Dr. Eric Baer, aim to discover.
Dr. Cho said the interesting component of this study will be the comparison between what students and faculty think is effective, however, faculty interviews won’t happen until the third year of the grant in 2025.
“So when students are taking this [survey], yes we’re getting that information from them, but that information, ultimately, we hope, will really improve instruction at Highline,” Dr. Baer said. “It will make it more effective, more interesting and more relevant to our students.”
Not only will it improve instruction at Highline but other minority-serving institutions and two-year colleges as well.
The survey is open to students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) classes, including those in health care, pre-medical, psychology and social sciences. It will take about 20 minutes to complete and, at the end, there will be a choice to be entered into a raffle to win one of several $50 Amazon gift cards. Students will also have an opportunity to be compensated $40 for participating in an interview once the survey is complete.
To take the survey, students should check their Highline email for the link. The email subject heading is “Highline Group Work Survey for STEM Students.”
Questions?
Contact Dr. Aleya Dhanji at 206-592-4597 or adhanji@highline.edu