Why Do College Students Leave Science and Math?

October 8, 2012

Undergraduates are switching from STEM majors at a rate largely unchanged despite efforts over the past 15 years to improve college science teaching. A new study, known as Talking about Leaving Revisited, will investigate why. WCER researcher Mark Connolly and colleague Anne-Barrie Hunter (University of Colorado, Boulder) are returning to seven institutions originally studied in 1997 by Elaine Seymour and Nancy Hewitt to examine STEM majors’ patterns of persistence and switching, this time in light of national efforts to improve undergraduate education. As in the original study, the research team will interview more than 400 undergraduates in order to compare “persisters” and “switchers.” The study also will examine foundational courses in mathematics and science, which are known to discourage otherwise talented students. To understand how STEM majors’ decisions to persist or switch are influenced by these courses, the team will interview instructors, observe classroom teaching practices, and gather data from students. More information is available here.