A utility-value writing intervention increases continuation to the second course of the biology sequence¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Students in UV conditions were more likely to enroll in the second course of the sequence (79.80% vs. 69.50%; Wald = 4.55, B = .30, p = .033). → Canning 2018

Evidence¶

Canning 2018¶

Canning, E. A., Harackiewicz, J. M., Priniski, S. J., Hecht, C. A., Tibbetts, Y., & Hyde, J. S. (2018). Improving Performance and Retention in Introductory Biology with a Utility-Value Intervention. Journal of educational psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000244

q3 · i? · causal · r3

Binary logistic regression on course records from the same randomized experiment (N = 577), controlling for gender, prior GPA, and initial interest. The article reports "79.80% of students who wrote about UV at least once continued" versus 69.50% of controls; no standardized effect size is printed.

"Students in the UV condition were more likely to enroll in the second course of the sequence, Wald = 4.55, B = .30, p = .033. We found that 79.80% of students who wrote about UV at least once continued to the next semester, compared to only 69.50% in the control condition."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Biology course grade partially mediates the UV intervention's effects on course continuation and STEM major persistence — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• A UV essay in the final unit of the course promotes enrollment in the second biology course, especially for high-performing students — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• UV dosage shows a nonmonotonic pattern: one or three UV essays outperform two for grades and continuation — related
• The overall intervention contrast comparing all UV conditions to control was not significant, and no individual UV condition significantly outperformed control in the dummy-coded model — reports the opposite
• A utility-value writing intervention increases STEM major persistence across the semester — related