STEM students: Work hard, but don’t compare yourself to others

(Press-News.org) COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study shows how damaging it can be for college students in introductory STEM classes to compare how hard they work to the extent of effort put in by their peers.

 

Researchers studied students in an introductory chemistry class, one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. They found that those who thought they had to work harder than others in class were less likely to believe they had the ability to succeed in science.

 

This focus on comparative effort was bad for both men and women in the class. But women showed positive effects of thinking they tried hard in the class – as long as they weren’t comparing themselves to others.

 

When students, particularly women, believed they tried hard, without comparing themselves to others, they even tended to do better in class.

 

The message is clear, said lead author Hyewon Lee, who did the work as a PhD student in educational studies at The Ohio State University.

 

“Students in introductory STEM classes need to focus on their own work, rather than comparing themselves to others, and to think about how their hard work is connected to their success,” said Lee, who is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Irvine.

 

The study was published online recently in the journal Contemporary Educational Psychology.

 

The difference between comparing your effort to that of your classmates (comparative effort) and simply thinking you’re working hard in the course (criterion effort) is an important distinction, said co-author Shirley L. Yu, associate professor of educational psychology at Ohio State.

 

“Criterion effort is essentially the belief that you work hard to learn — because that effort is required to understand the course material,” said Yu, who leads Ohio State’s SPARKS Lab (STEM Participation, Achievement, and Resilience through Knowledge and Skills).

 

“However, if you’re comparing your effort to others and feel like you have to work harder, it can imply that you must make up for a lack of ability. That can harm your science self-concept and make it harder to succeed.”

 

In this study, science self-concept was defined as students’ belief that they had the ability to succeed in science.

 

The study involved 690 undergraduate students at Ohio State enrolled in three sections of an introductory chemistry course.

 

Criterion effort, comparative effort, and science self-concept were measured three times during the course of the semester.  Midterm and final exam scores for the students were assessed to measure achievement.

 

Prior achievement on ACT and SAT exams, demographics, and pandemic impact (the study was conducted in the fall of 2020) were also taken into account.

 

Findings showed that the extent to which students compared their efforts to others had a significant impact on science self-concept. Specifically, both men and women tended to interpret higher effort than others as a sign of low scientific ability.

 

In other words, they were more likely to agree with the sentiment that they were not good at science because they had to work harder than others in science class.

 

For women, criterion effort – the perception of trying hard – was related to a more positive science self-concept, but that was not true of men.

 

The researchers believe that women students may realize that they have to work hard to overcome gender stereotypes that women are not good at science, so perception of hard work is positive for them.

 

However, men’s perceptions of trying hard did not affect their confidence in science. Instead, their confidence was more influenced by how well they had actually performed earlier. Perhaps because men already have strong and durable confidence in their science abilities, their achievement mattered more, the study authors said.

 

The relationship between criterion and comparative effort and achievement on the midterms and finals was complex.

 

But in general, the two types of perceived effort and achievement were related reciprocally, with more pronounced patterns among women.

 

For example, criterion effort was linked to high midterm scores, which in turn was related to an increase in students’ criterion effort. A focus on comparative effort, on the other hand, was linked to lower chemistry performance.

 

“We found this feedback loop between perceived effort and performance that was significant,” Lee said.

 

“It shows the importance of early positive experiences for undergraduate students, particularly women, in their understanding of the effort they invest and how it is connected to success.”

 

A key contribution of the study is that it is the first, to the knowledge of the authors, to explore the relationship between the two types of perceived effort, science self-concept, and achievement in actual undergraduate classes.

 

These findings can show how to help students in these early STEM classes, which often act to “weed out” students who don’t feel they can succeed in science and lead them to switch majors.

 

“These early classes have rigorous coursework and typically a competitive climate,” said Yu.

 

“We need to find ways to take away barriers that may keep qualified students, particularly women, from succeeding.”

 

Other co-authors, all at Ohio State, were Tzu-Jung Lin, professor of educational psychology, and Minjung Kim, associate professor of quantitative research, evaluation and measurement.

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