Title:

Doing The Math: The Impact of Quantitative Biology Group on Student Self-Efficacy

There is an increasing need for better integration of quantitative skills into the undergraduate biology curriculum, but efforts can be hampered by low student engagement. Theory and empirical evidence suggest that students’ engagement and performance on a task is influenced by their beliefs about their ability to succeed at that task, or their self-efficacy for the task. Students build self-efficacy through experiencing success on the task, comparing their ability to their peers, or receiving feedback from others. It can also be influenced by a student's emotions towards the task, such as fear or anxiety. Group work is one instructional strategy with the potential to increase students' self-efficacy, but it is unclear how students experience the different sources of self-efficacy through group work. This exploratory study examines how group work affects the quantitative biology self-efficacy beliefs of introductory biology students. Students in two sections of introductory biology were surveyed after two different in-class quantitative group work assignments about experiences which increased and decreased their confidence in their ability to solve similar problems on their own. We then inductively and deductively coded student responses. Preliminary analyses show that the most commonly reported beneficial experience was simply discussing and verifying answers with their classmates (39%). Students were also encouraged to teach and guide each other through the problems (25%), suggesting that they found the social feedback collaborative environment helpful in building their self-efficacy. While few students reported a decrease in self-efficacy, those who did found a lack of group consensus about a specific answer (32%) and the feelings of anxiety which resulted (29%) were most impactful. This study will provide insight into how educators can structure group work to promote the development of self-efficacy, especially within the context of quantitative tasks.

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