Entering the STEM Pipeline: Exploring the Impacts of a Summer Bridge Program on Students’ Readiness

The high attrition rate of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors is a main concern in education (National Science Board, 2010). While educators have made great efforts to support students in the pursuit of STEM degrees (National Research Council, 2013), those from minoritized backgrounds (Harper, 2012) are at especially higher rates of leaving the STEM fields (Andersen & Ward, 2014; Good, Halpin, & Halpin, 2001). A number of factors may account for students’ departure, among which preparedness for STEM learning in college is a crucial determinant (Seymour & Hewitt, 1997). Extensive work has been done to enhance students’ preparedness through efforts such as bridge programs, where academic and social support is provided to minoritized students for the rigors of college (Garcia, 1991); however, discrepancies exist regarding how such programs may impact students’ cognitive and affective readiness (e.g., Reisel, Jablonski, Hosseini, & Munson, 2012). Thus, I explored the effects of a bridge program with a focus on four key aspects of readiness: self-efficacy, mathematics anxiety, epistemic beliefs, and metacognitive skills.

Self-efficacy is a most influential factor in academic retention (Raelin et al., 2015). Self-efficacy is individuals’ beliefs in their competence in planning and accomplishing specific tasks (Bandura, 1986). It not only reflects students’ readiness for entering STEM, but also is a strong predictor of their persistence and success (Sawtelle, Brewe, & Kramer, 2012). Several factors may contribute to self-efficacy, among which emotions, such as anxiety, is a critical one (Usher & Pajares, 2009). Previous studies have found that mathematics anxiety is closely related to students’ self-perceived competence in successful STEM learning (Ashcraft, 2002). Yet, the relationship between math anxiety and self-efficacy varies depending on the differences in personal experience and contexts (Litzler, Samuelson, & Lorah, 2014).

Metacognitive skills and epistemic beliefs also constitute significant indicators of students’ readiness for college (Tsai, Jessie Ho, Liang, & Lin, 2011). Metacognitive skills entail perceiving one’s cognition and monitoring the learning processes, such as conscious use of learning strategies (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). Epistemic beliefs, on the other hand, are views about the nature of knowledge and processes of knowing (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997), including beliefs in certain knowledge (whether knowledge is absolute and will be ultimately obtained), simple knowledge (whether knowledge is discrete facts), omniscient authority (whether knowledge can be fully accessed only by authorities), quick learning (whether learning occurs in an all-or-none fashion), and innate ability (whether competence in learning is determined at birth; Schraw, Bendixen, & Dunkle, 2002). Previous studies have shown that students with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs, such as considering knowledge as constructive rather than facts, tend to demonstrate higher academic self-efficacy and stronger academic progress (Muis, Bendixen, & Haerle, 2006). In contrast, those who believe that knowledge is simple and certain are more likely to have lower self-efficacy and metacognitive skills (Bråten, Britt, Strømsø, & Rouet, 2011). Yet, while metacognitive skills closely interact with epistemic beliefs and academic self-efficacy (Muis & Duffy, 2013), our understanding of their relationship in STEM learning remains preliminary; therefore, the primary research question in this study was: What are the relations between self-efficacy, math anxiety, metacognitive skills, and epistemic beliefs?

This work was conducted in the context of a summer bridge program at a large, U.S. mid-Atlantic, public university. As an initiative to support ethnically minoritized first-year students at a predominantly White institution, the program provided math and physics courses over a span of 6 weeks. The courses were delivered in lectures and remedial sessions to prepare students for intensive requirements of STEM majors. This study was conducted to investigate how participation in the program may affect students’ readiness. Of note, metacognitive skills and epistemic beliefs have been shown to be relatively stable over short time periods, whereas self-efficacy and math anxiety may present significant fluctuation (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991; Schraw et al., 2002). Hence, the second research question in this work was: How does participation in the bridge program impact students’ self-efficacy in math and physics, as well as their levels of math anxiety?

METHOD

Thirty-nine first-year college students who...