Understanding Differences in Underrepresented Minorities and First-Generation Student Perceptions in the Introductory Biology Classroom

Jacob Jantzer; Thomas Kirkman; Katherine L. Furniss

doi:10.1128/jmbe.00176-21

Understanding Differences in Underrepresented Minorities and First-Generation Student Perceptions in the Introductory Biology Classroom

Jacob Jantzer, Thomas Kirkman, Katherine L. Furniss

Biology Teaching and Learning

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

We used quantitative methods to better understand the perceptions of students in an introductory biology course (Biology 101) at a small, liberal arts college (SLAC) that is also a primarily white institution (PWI). In pre/post surveys, we asked students questions related to their attitudes and beliefs about their professor, classmates, and Biology 101. We were especially interested in the responses and outcomes of underrepresented minorities (URM) and first-generation (FG) students. Our findings suggest URM and FG students have a decreased sense of belonging and increased perceptions of exclusion and differential treatment due to race. These findings can explain, in part, the disparity in Biology 101 grade and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) attrition.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e00176-21
Journal	Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education
Volume	22
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00176-21
State	Published - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was funded through the Becoming Community grant funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We declare no conflicts of interest.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Jantzer et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.

Keywords

Attitude
Disparities
First-generation
Introductory biology
Kindness cues
Perception
Stereotype threat
Survey
Underrepresented minorities

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title = "Understanding Differences in Underrepresented Minorities and First-Generation Student Perceptions in the Introductory Biology Classroom",

abstract = "We used quantitative methods to better understand the perceptions of students in an introductory biology course (Biology 101) at a small, liberal arts college (SLAC) that is also a primarily white institution (PWI). In pre/post surveys, we asked students questions related to their attitudes and beliefs about their professor, classmates, and Biology 101. We were especially interested in the responses and outcomes of underrepresented minorities (URM) and first-generation (FG) students. Our findings suggest URM and FG students have a decreased sense of belonging and increased perceptions of exclusion and differential treatment due to race. These findings can explain, in part, the disparity in Biology 101 grade and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) attrition.",

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Understanding Differences in Underrepresented Minorities and First-Generation Student Perceptions in the Introductory Biology Classroom

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Keywords

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