TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of effective study strategy use in an introductory anatomy and physiology class
AU - Firetto, Carla M.
AU - Starrett, Emily
AU - Montalbano, Amy Collins
AU - Yan, Lin
AU - Penkrot, Tonya A.
AU - Kingsbury, Jeffrey S.
AU - Hyatt, Jon Philippe K.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research project was supported by internal research grants awarded by both Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and the Institute for Social Sciences Research at Arizona State University (ASU) as well as the ASU Open Access Publication Fund.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Firetto, Starrett, Montalbano, Yan, Penkrot, Kingsbury and Hyatt.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Introductory courses in biology often act as a gateway for students seeking careers in healthcare and science-related fields. As such, they provide a prime entry point for innovations seeking to enhance students’ learning of foundational content. Extant innovations and interventions have been found to positively impact students’ study strategy use with concomitant impacts on course exams and grades. These innovations, however, often have associated time and other costs, which may ultimately limit more widespread use. Our study builds on prior findings by exploring the extent to which students evidence increased use of effective study strategies after engaging in a brief (i.e., 15-min), online module requiring no financial cost for students or time commitment from instructors, and whether changes in students’ use of effective study strategies are associated with changes in exam performance. The present study employed a brief, online module designed to support undergraduate students’ (n = 98) use of effective study strategies in an introductory human anatomy and physiology course. Through a pretest-posttest design, students described the strategies they used to study and completed four cognitive and metacognitive subscales before and after engaging in a brief, online module designed to teach them about effective study strategies. Results were somewhat mixed: students evidenced a modest, statistically significant increase in the number of strategies used and changes in strategy use were associated with changes in exam score only for some measures. Notably, this relationship was not moderated by GPA, suggesting that the strength of the relationship between changes in strategy use and changes in exam scores were not different depending on students’ levels of prior academic performance. Taken together, the innovation was associated with increases in students’ exam scores, irrespective of GPA, but future research should explore the refinement and extension of the innovation to explore ways that increase efficacy and impact while still balancing sustainable implementation to account for challenges associated with instructor supervision and training, financial costs, and students’ time.
AB - Introductory courses in biology often act as a gateway for students seeking careers in healthcare and science-related fields. As such, they provide a prime entry point for innovations seeking to enhance students’ learning of foundational content. Extant innovations and interventions have been found to positively impact students’ study strategy use with concomitant impacts on course exams and grades. These innovations, however, often have associated time and other costs, which may ultimately limit more widespread use. Our study builds on prior findings by exploring the extent to which students evidence increased use of effective study strategies after engaging in a brief (i.e., 15-min), online module requiring no financial cost for students or time commitment from instructors, and whether changes in students’ use of effective study strategies are associated with changes in exam performance. The present study employed a brief, online module designed to support undergraduate students’ (n = 98) use of effective study strategies in an introductory human anatomy and physiology course. Through a pretest-posttest design, students described the strategies they used to study and completed four cognitive and metacognitive subscales before and after engaging in a brief, online module designed to teach them about effective study strategies. Results were somewhat mixed: students evidenced a modest, statistically significant increase in the number of strategies used and changes in strategy use were associated with changes in exam score only for some measures. Notably, this relationship was not moderated by GPA, suggesting that the strength of the relationship between changes in strategy use and changes in exam scores were not different depending on students’ levels of prior academic performance. Taken together, the innovation was associated with increases in students’ exam scores, irrespective of GPA, but future research should explore the refinement and extension of the innovation to explore ways that increase efficacy and impact while still balancing sustainable implementation to account for challenges associated with instructor supervision and training, financial costs, and students’ time.
KW - learning
KW - online intervention
KW - self-regulated learning
KW - study strategies
KW - undergraduate students
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85159682511&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/feduc.2023.1161772
DO - 10.3389/feduc.2023.1161772
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85159682511
SN - 2504-284X
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Education
JF - Frontiers in Education
M1 - 1161772
ER -