Comparative effects of mathematics intervention strategies on minority engineering students' success

Developing academic support programs involves assessment of intervention strategies that are founded on cutting-edge learning theories that are applicable to the engineering environment. In 1993, Auburn University's College of Engineering commissioned a longitudinal study to identify performance factors for student success in engineering. The study revealed that only one third of the African American freshman engineering students met the academic requirements to move from the pre-engineering phase of the curriculum into an engineering discipline.;In response to the findings of the study, Auburn University initiated the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) in 1996. MEP consists of a series of academic programs designed to increase recruitment and enhance retention of underrepresented minorities.;MEP personnel studied the possible integration of learning theory concepts into MEP academic support programs. The learning theories included cooperative learning, reciprocal peer tutoring, didactic tutoring, and elaboration theory. Previous research studies did not address the cumulative effects of combining various learning theory concepts into intervention strategies.;A research study was developed to determine the comparative academic performance effects of two intervention strategies that utilized the coupling of the learning theories to enhance mathematics performance: (a) cooperative learning with reciprocal peer tutoring (CL-RPT) and (b) traditional, didactic one-on-one tutoring coupled with computer assisted elaborative instruction (DT-CAE). First semester minority freshman engineering students were randomly assigned to one of the two interventions programs. Also, the participants' mathematics attitude and mathematics social anxiety were evaluated over the course of the semester using four domains from the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales along with several questions that were modified from the Social Avoidance and Distress scale (SAD).;At the conclusion of the study, there were no statistically significant differences, relative to mean mathematics and cumulative grade averages, between the CL-RPT and DT-CAE intervention group participants. However, both intervention groups had significantly higher mean mathematics and cumulative grade point averages relative to first semester African American non-participants. Also, the mathematics attitude and mathematics social anxiety assessment showed that the participants' confidence in learning mathematics, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics social anxiety were subject to statistically significant fluctuations during the semester.;Recommendations for further study are based on assessments of the participants' academic performance and mathematics attitude and mathematics social anxiety evaluations. Further suggestions for academic support intervention strategy research are also discussed.