This study investigates associations between two types of control beliefs--self-efficacy for self-regulation and implicit theories of willpower--and undergraduate biology students' (N = 535) behavioral self-regulation and performance. Findings suggest that self-efficacy is the more proximally related motive for students to engage in academic…

Grades in introductory STEM courses can impact intrinsic motivation (IM) and self-efficacy (SE). We used an exploratory approach to examine trends in grades and how IM and SE impact students' grades. It is known that most first-generation (FG) college students are from underrepresented backgrounds (URM), and that these students are least likely to…

Student motivation is widely regarded as an essential prerequisite for learning and success. To learn more about biology student motivation and how it changes over time, pre/post-surveys were administered to a large introductory biology course during the fall of 2015. These pre/post-surveys contained motivation subscales from the Intrinsic…

Anxiety can impact overall performance and persistence in college. Student response systems (SRSs), real-time active-learning technologies used to engage students and gauge their understanding, have been shown to elicit anxiety for some students. Kahoot! is an SRS technology that differs from others in that it involves gamification, the use of…

In flipped classrooms, lectures, which are normally delivered in-class, are assigned as homework in the form of videos, and assignments that were traditionally assigned as homework, are done as learning activities in class. It was hypothesized that the effectiveness of the flipped model hinges on a student's desire and ability to adopt a…

The Louisiana State University Biology Intensive Orientation for Students (BIOS) Program has been found to be an effective retention initiative for freshman Biological Science majors (S. M. Wischusen, Wischusen, & Pomarico, 2010; S. M. Wischusen, Wischusen, W. E., 2007). Students who attended the five-day camp out-perform their non-participant…

As the number of college students studying science continues to grow, it is important to identify variables that predict their success. The literature indicates that motivation and learning strategy use facilitate science success. Research findings show these variables can change throughout a semester and differ by performance level, gender and…

Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory biology course for nonmajors during the fall semester of 2007 were administered the Biology Attitude Scale (Russell and Hollander 1975), a constructed Mathematics Attitude Scale, and a portion of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich and Smith 1993). Together, the…