A brief online single session intervention increases undergraduate confidence speaking out in an active learning physiology course

Abstract

Increasingly, college physiology courses are transitioning from traditional lecture to active learning because students learn more and fail less when they engage in their learning through activities and discussions in class. Fear of negative evaluation (FNE), defined as a student’s sense of dread associated with being unfavorably evaluated while participating in a social situation, discourages undergraduates from participating in small group discussions, whole class discussions, and conversing one-on-one with instructors. FNE disproportionately impacts women, persons excluded because of their ethnicity or race (PEERs), LGBTQ+ individuals, and those coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds. To equip undergraduates with skills to cope with fear of negative evaluation and bolster their confidence, clinical psychologists and biology education researchers developed Project Engage, a digital, self-guided single-session intervention for college students. It teaches students strategies for coping with and reducing fear of negative evaluation by providing biologically-informed psychoeducation, utilizing interactive elements for engagement, and generating a personalized action plan. In a study of 300 upper-level physiology students, participants randomized to complete Project Engage reported greater increases in overall confidence in engaging in small group discussions (p < 0.01), whole class discussions (p < 0.001) and one-on-one interactions with instructors (p<0.05), from baseline to immediate post-intervention, compared to participants in an active control condition. This work provides a foundation for a freely-available, easily accessible intervention to bolster student confidence contributing in class, with the hope of creating more equitable active learning physiology courses. NSF grant #2141681 This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.