Gatekeeper Courses Research Articles

Concepts Most Successfully Learned and Most Challenging to Students in a Redesigned Pre-Calculus Course

Pre-Calculus is considered one of many gate-keeper courses for STEM college students (Viera Jr et al., 2019). To better support students in Pre-Calculus, various college-level institutions have redesigned their Pre-Calculus courses to address learning challenges and inequities faced by students. For instance, Jones Lanaghan (2021) redesigned the Pre-Calculus course to incorporate a standards-based grading system, active learning practices among students, and emphasis on developing a growth mindset. Students in their redesigned Pre-Calculus course passed the class at a higher rate than those enrolled in the traditional Pre-Calculus course, with a difference of 38.3% higher. Additionally, students in the redesigned Pre-Calculus course passed their Calculus I course at a higher rate, with a difference of 3.1% higher. Despite the overall improvement and encouraging outcomes to the course, further learning challenges still need to be addressed. This study seeks to answer the following research questions: 1) What concepts are most successfully learned by students in a redesigned Pre-Calculus course? 2) What concepts are most challenging to students in a redesigned Pre-Calculus course? Data from 59 students enrolled in all sections of a redesigned Pre-Calculus course in Spring 2023 were analyzed quantitatively, using descriptive statistics. Discussion, limitations, and future research for teaching will also be shared.

Women’s Sense of Belonging in Undergraduate Calculus and the Influence of (Inter)Active Learning Opportunities

Women continue to be underrepresented in undergraduate STEM majors.<b> </b>Prior studies identify sense of belonging, or the extent to which one feels like an accepted member of an academic community, as a key contributor to women’s decisions to stick with or leave their STEM majors. Calculus can be an especially critical leak in the STEM pipeline, as is often seen as a gatekeeper course for STEM majors. Historically, Calculus instruction has been primarily lecture-based, though recently, efforts have shifted toward incorporating instruction that supports active learning. Prior studies have suggested that providing active learning opportunities may support students’ sense of belonging. However, there lacks consensus on the particular types of active learning opportunities that best support students. This mixed methods study investigates connections between women’s sense of belonging and the learning opportunities they experience during the first semester of a two-semester Calculus course designed to provide frequent active learning opportunities. Findings indicate a significant increase in sense of belonging, perceived competence, and social connectedness from Week 1 to Week 7 of the semester. Further, women overwhelmingly identified the interactive nature of group work and interactive lecture as supportive of their sense of belonging for both academic and social reasons.

Racialized and Gendered Labor in Students’ Responses to Precalculus and Calculus Instruction

Precalculus and calculus are considered gatekeeper courses because of their academic challenge and status as requirements for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and non-STEM majors alike. Despite college mathematics often being seen as a neutral space, the field has identified ways that expectations, interactions, and instruction are racialized and gendered. This article uses the concept of labor to examine responses from 20 students from historically marginalized groups to events identified as discouraging in precalculus and calculus instruction. Findings illustrate how Black students, Latina/o students, and white women engage in emotional and cognitive labor in response to discouraging events. Additionally, to manage this labor, students named coping strategies that involved moderating their participation to avoid or minimize the racialized and gendered impact of undergraduate mathematics instruction.

Adopting Online Learning in College Developmental Education Coursework: Impact on Course Persistence, Completion, and Subsequent Success

ABSTRACT Online learning has been increasing rapidly at community colleges, especially in low-division high-demand coursework, such as developmental education. While existing studies have identified negative effects associated with online instruction in semester-long coursework in this particular setting, there is less evidence about how distance learning influences students’ completion of developmental education coursework and, more importantly, their subsequent academic outcomes. This paper examines the impact of fully online instruction, compared with traditional face-to-face instruction, on both concurrent developmental course outcomes and downstream outcomes. We use an administrative dataset from a state community college system that includes longitudinal student-unit record data from more than 40,000 students enrolled in developmental education courses between 2005 and 2012, and employ a two-way fixed effects model that controls for selection both at the course- and student-level. We find that taking one’s first developmental course through the online format reduces developmental course completion rate by 13 percentage points and subsequent enrollment in the gatekeeper course by 7 percentage points. Successful completion of developmental and subsequent gateway coursework represents critical milestones among community college students. This paper provides insight on how delivery format influences both the concurrent and downstream outcomes of developmental education students.

Predicting Success in a Statistics Course Geared toward Allied Health Students

Statistics education is an important component of allied health education. Although success in statistics courses has been reported for students in fields such as business, nursing and psychology, there is a dearth of literature in students of other allied health science disciplines. As statistics is a gatekeeper course for many of these disciplines, understanding and addressing demographic predictors of success is a crucial step in helping to maintain a diverse healthcare workforce. In this study, ethnicity, gender, their interaction, age, and class format were used to predict 953 success outcomes in a retrospective dataset, with major being used as a random effect. Ethnicity alone predicted success, with students of other ethnicities having 0.6 times the odds of success as their Caucasian counterparts. As statistics is a potential gatekeeper course for success in health professions programs, academic instructors, administrators and other stakeholders should take steps to ascertain the incidence and nature of disparities in their settings, as it may play a role in maintaining a diverse healthcare workforce.

A Multilevel Binary Logistic Regression Model of Success in Anatomy and Physiology I: A Retrospective Analysis

Anatomy and physiology (AP) are subfields of biology that are gatekeeper courses for the health professions. This exploratory study used multilevel binary logistic regression to determine if age/gender and race/ethnicity were used as predictors of success, while the term offered and the identification number were specified as random effects. Two models were used. Those earning the grades of A, B and C were defined as successful for both models. Those earning the grades of D and F and those who withdrew (W) were defined as successful for one model, while the other model had the withdrawals removed. Ethnicity and gender predicted success in both models, with Native Americans and African Americans being less likely to succeed than Caucasians with the withdrawn students included. The model without withdrawn students was similar, except Hispanic students were also less likely to succeed than Caucasians. Females were more likely to succeed than males in both models. Efforts to retain equity in AP pedagogy should be prioritized.

How organic chemistry became one of UCLA's most popular classes

Organic chemistry has a bad reputation, despite having a tremendous impact on our everyday lives. It has remained a notorious "weed-out" class for decades-striking fear in the hearts of students-and has long been viewed as a gatekeeper course for those interested in pursuing a career in medicine or other health-related professions. This personal account examines the underlying teaching philosophies that transformed organic chemistry into one of the most popular classes on the UCLA campus. Special emphasis is placed on ways to increase engagement and help students feel connected. Educational initiatives, including organic chemistry music videos and various online resources created in partnerships with students, will be discussed. It is hoped that this account will stimulate ideas that transcend scientific disciplines all for the benefit of student education.

Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander Student Progression through Community College: A Disaggregated Transcript Analysis

Background/Context Research on the postsecondary education of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students has typically focused on attainment within four-year colleges and neglected the experiences of API students in community colleges. However, many API students pursuing postsecondary education, particularly Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander (SEAPI) students, do so through U.S. community colleges. The progress and achievement of these students in community college remains largely unstudied, due in part to the limited availability of disaggregated data. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study (1) To what extent do API students, and specifically SEAPI students, achieve community college progress milestones, such as enrollment, completion of gatekeeper courses, and attainment of degree- and transfer-applicable credits? (2) How are these students progressing through developmental math? Research Design We examine the academic progress of API students using transcript data from a large California community college district. The disaggregated race/ethnicity data allow us to focus on oft-overlooked API subgroups. Focusing on SEAPI students, we analyze momentum towards key college persistence and completion milestones. We also track progression through developmental math education, one of the key barriers community college students face in completing community college. Findings In our disaggregated transcript analysis, we find that SEAPI students are less likely than their peers to achieve college milestones such as completing math courses and earning the degree-applicable units necessary for degree completion or transfer. Seeking explanations for these differences within the context of developmental education, we observe that SEAPI students are significantly less likely than their peers to attempt developmental math courses, though the data suggest they are more likely to complete courses when they do attempt them. These relationships hold after controlling for differences in the demographic characteristics of these students. Conclusions/Recommendations These findings point towards non-academic and institutional explanations for lower rates of college persistence and completion and offer direction for policy efforts and institutional practice to support these students.

How Organic Chemistry Became One of UCLA's Most Popular Classes

Organic chemistry has a bad reputation, despite having a tremendous impact on our everyday lives. It has remained a notorious “weed‐out” class for decades – striking fear in the hearts of students – and has long been viewed as a gatekeeper course for those interested in pursuing a career in medicine. This presentation will examine the underlying teaching philosophies that have now transformed organic chemistry into one of the most popular classes on the UCLA campus. Educational initiatives, including organic chemistry music videos and BACON (Biology And Chemistry Online Notes) tutorials, will be discussed.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Forged in failure: engagement patterns for successful students repeating calculus

Although there is extensive research on attrition in gatekeeper courses and students’ cognition about calculus concepts, there is one population in introductory calculus that remains understudied: those who failed their initial course and chose to repeat it rather than change majors. These students can provide insight into overcoming poor mathematics affect and major persistence. This case study follows eight students repeating calculus from their second try at undergraduate calculus until they graduated or left the university; six graduated with either a mathematics major or mathematics minor. While participants identified several reasons for their success in the repeated course (processing their initial failure, having a better instructor in the repeated course, and participating regularly in the formative assessments), only participation in formative assessment led to the long-term cognitive and behavioral engagement required for long-term success.

Increasing Chemistry Content Engagement by Implementing Polymer Infusion into Gatekeeper Chemistry Courses

Mastery of core chemistry content is a degree requirement for several STEM majors. Gatekeeper courses, like general and physical chemistry, have a history of weeding out struggling students, and often underrepresented groups underperform. While gatekeeper courses ensure students are prepared for STEM degrees, it is essential they do not create undue obstacles or dampen interest in STEM. This article describes the implementation and evaluation of efforts to infuse polymer science into a two-semester sequence of general and physical chemistry courses. Survey and focus group data revealed positive feedback from students. Also, improved student mastery of polymer concepts and knowledge was demonstrated in pre- and postassessments. Ultimately, these initial efforts provided students with additional foundational skills and increased engagement with chemistry content.

Kinks in the STEM Pipeline: Tracking STEM Graduation Rates Using Science and Mathematics Performance

In an effort to maintain the global competitiveness of the United States, ensuring a strong Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce is essential. The purpose of this study was to identify high school courses that serve as predictors of success in college level gatekeeper courses, which in turn led to the successful completion of STEM degrees. Using a purposive sample of 893 students who had declared a STEM major between the fall of 2006 and the spring of 2008, data were collected on students' high school grades, college grades, national test scores, grade point average, gender, and ethnicity. Using analysis of variance, correlations, multiple discriminant function analysis, and multiple regression models we found that high school calculus, physics, and chemistry (respectively) were predictors of success in STEM gatekeeper college courses. Then using those courses, we constructed a predictive model of STEM degree completion. The implications of this study highlight and reinforce the importance of providing rigorous mathematics and science courses at the high school level, as well as provide some evidence of a potential mediated model of the relationship between high school performance, college performance, and graduating with a STEM degree.

What Are the Learning Styles of Community College Accounting Teachers and Students?

The first year accounting college course is considered a gatekeeper course. If a student fails this course, it could affect their entire degree program (Duchac & Amoruso, 2012). In addition, it might preclude them from employment opportunities in the accounting profession (Pratt, 2013; Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). One factor that could improve the quality of the course, as mentioned by the Pathways report (The Pathways Commission, 2012), is learning style. Little is known about the learning styles of accounting teachers and students, as research thus far has focused on programs such as physiology (Breckler, Joun, & Ngo, 2009) and engineering (Katsioloudis & Fantz, 2012). The main question for this research was this: What are the learning styles of community college accounting teachers and students? One interesting finding is that almost a third of the students reported to have a Kinesthetic Learning Style. Accounting teachers had a range of learning styles. Opportunities for future research conclude this article.

Math Preparation of Undergraduates in General Chemistry, a Gatekeeper Course Required for Biophysicists

Gatekeeper courses for undergraduates wishing to pursue careers in biophysics and other STEM fields include introductory chemistry, physics, and biology. At the University of Washington, as at many other peer institutions, a high level of math is required for enrollment in main sequence General Chemistry. Specifically, students must have fulfilled a calculus requirement or be co-enrolled in calculus. Moreover, the average high school GPA of freshmen entering directly from high school is 3.7. Nevertheless, we find that significant fractions of students enrolled in General Chemistry are unable to complete problems in which they are asked to manipulate exponents (∼20%), logarithms (∼40-50%), or probabilities (∼40%). Researchers at University of Minnesota have documented similar results [Leopold and Edgar, 2008, Chemical Education Research 85:724]. We find that some math deficiencies among undergraduates persist into the senior year, at least for biochemistry majors. Here we track undergraduate math competencies through the first two academic terms of General Chemistry after introducing an intervention of a math quiz and feedback. We separately track competencies after student use of a program called ALEKS, which uses adaptive questioning to determine student competencies and then instruct on deficient topics.

Improving Retention for Principles of Accounting Students: Ultra-Short Online Tutorials for Motivating Effort and Improving Performance

ABSTRACT As student learning outcomes and retention receive more attention in higher education, failure rates in principles of accounting courses, gate-keeper courses for business majors, are coming under scrutiny. This study shows promising results from use of a learning innovation, ultra-short online videos, for addressing three common reasons for poor performance: intimidating class environments, low aptitude, and low motivation. For students at all achievement levels, tutorial use rates were above 60 percent, even though there was no course credit for viewing them. Students using the tutorials had significantly lower course drop rates and better pass rates. Tutorial use was correlated with higher exam scores, although the effect was moderate. Based on analysis of the two-year periods before and after implementation, the use of tutorials was correlated with higher course grades. Tutorial use remained at high levels two years after implementation even without instructors encouraging students to use them.

Motivation of Latina/o Students in Algebra I: Intertwining Research and Reflections

Latinas/os, the largest and fastest growing minority ethnic group in the United States (impels research that focuses on the education of Latinas/os and the need to reduce the achievement gap that persists between Latinas/os and other groups. Such research has gained in popularity; however, it is still very limited. I use my teaching experience with Latina/o students to highlight the need to motivate Latina/o students in Algebra I, a gatekeeper course for many minority students. In addition, also included are several factors affecting Latina/o students' motivation to learn. The call is urgent and researchers and teachers must pay close attention to the mathematics education of Latina/o students and to the positive consequence on the social and economic welfare of America.

A Genetically Optimized Predictive System for Success in General Chemistry Using a Diagnostic Algebra Test

In higher education, many high-enrollment introductory courses have evolved into “gatekeeper” courses due to their high failure rates. These courses prevent many students from attaining their educational goals and often become graduation roadblocks. At the authors’ home institution, general chemistry has become a gatekeeper course in which approximately 25% of students do not pass. This failure rate in chemistry is common, and often higher, at many other institutions of higher education, and mathematical deficiencies are perceived to be a large contributing factor. This paper details the development of a highly accurate predictive system that identifies students at the beginning of the semester who are “at-risk” for earning a grade of C- or below in chemistry. The predictive accuracy of this system is maximized by using a genetically optimized neural network to analyze the results of a diagnostic algebra test designed for a specific population. Once at-risk students have been identified, they can be helped to improve their chances of success using techniques such as concurrent support courses, online tutorials, “just-in-time” instructional aides, study skills, motivational interviewing, and/or peer mentoring.

Success in Algebra Among Community College Students

College algebra is a required course for most majors, but is viewed by many as a gatekeeper course for degree completion by students. With almost half a million students taking college algebra each year, faculty are experimenting with new course lengths of time that might result in higher success, completion, and retention rates for college algebra students. This article reports on a study of the traditional 16-week versus an 8-week course length in college algebra at a two-year Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in the United States. The study was to determine which course length of time, 8 weeks or 16 weeks, results in a higher proportion of students successfully completing the college algebra course. Also investigated were success rates among ethnicities, genders, and age groups. The study included 231 students in college algebra. Data were analyzed on four sections of the traditional 16-week courses and four sections of 8-week courses. In this study, success was measured as earning a grade of A, B, or C in the course. Understanding more about course lengths of time for college algebra can aid in increased understanding of time as a factor and, ultimately, may determine if students are more successful in 8-week or 16-week courses of instruction.

Strategies for Promoting Gatekeeper Course Success Among Students Needing Remediation: Research Report for the Virginia Community College System

Strategies for Promoting Gatekeeper Course Success Among Students Needing Remediation: Research Report for the Virginia Community College System

Closing the gate: Part‐Time faculty instruction in gatekeeper courses and first‐year persistence

AbstractThis chapter reports the results of a large study on the effects of part‐time faculty on student persistence and suggests that administrators give careful consideration when trying to reduce expenses through the use of such faculty in large beginning courses.