Author: Louis Deslauriers and Sara Harris

1. Interventions
CWSEI End‐of‐Year event
27 April 2010
Louis Deslauriers & Sara Harris

2. What is an “intervention”?
Typically, an intervention to help low performing students would
involve:
1‐ Providing extra review sessions
2‐ Distributing additional practice problems
3‐ providing additional office hours
p g
4‐ Help rooms where students can work together with TAs
5‐ Etc...
Typically not too effective though!!
Typically not too effective though!!
High performing students avail themselves of these additional resources, but lower
performance students DO NOT.
Many documented (and undocumented) interventions failed to improve performance
Many documented (and undocumented) interventions failed to improve performance
of these lower performing students.
“Although most programs in which the thrust is study skills use University students, the effect
“Alth h t i hi h th th t i t d kill U i it t d t th ff t
on study skills are minimal”
J. Hattie, J. Biggs, N. Purdie, Review of Educational Research 66, 99‐136 (1996)

3. We successfully intervened with low
performing students i
f i t d t in
two VERY different courses:
PHYS 250 (Modern Phys) May 2009
Student population: 67 second year engineering phys students
EOSC 112 (Fluid Earth: Atmosphere & Ocean) Sept 2009
l
Student population: 180 students, any year, any faculty
students year

4. Who gets an intervention? PHYS 250
100%
Phys250: Modern Physics ‐‐ 67 Students enrolment
90%
80%
Scores after Midterm1
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67
5 Students emailed, but did not respond
12 Students emailed, and intervened with

5. Who gets an intervention? EOSC 112
udied
an hours stu
Media
50% Pass/fail line
Studied > class median & failed
S di d l di & f il d

6. Who gets an intervention?
EOSC 112
udied
an hours stu
Media
50% Pass/fail line
Came to face‐to‐face intervention
Invited for F2F, didn’t come, got email
Got email (not invited to F2F)
Could consult study tips on website

7. PHYS 250
What does an intervention look like?
Intervention:
Email is sent out to the ones who scored at bottom 25% on Midterm 1
We sent 7 emails, and intervened with students.
We sent 17 emails, and intervened with 12 students.
Took place about 1‐2 weeks after Midterm 1.
One‐on‐one with one of the instructor, lasted about 15‐25min each
One on one with one of the instructor lasted about 15 25min each
Questions asked:
1‐ What did you think of M1? (Hard/easy, fair/unfair, blabla)
2‐ How did you prepare for it?
y p p
3‐ What do you think could be done to improve on M2?
4‐ Volunteered our help to improve their performance on exams

8. PHYS 250
What does an intervention look like?
Intervention:
We asked them to carry out a specific set of activities in studying for
future exams.
1‐ Review the homework problems and solutions
2‐ Go to the weekly (optional) problem solving sessions
3‐ Study the learning goals for the course they had been given with the
3 Study the learning goals for the course they had been given with the
syllabus
4‐ Review the assigned reading for the course
Each student was asked to agree to do these things when studying for the next exam
and told we would be checking on their progress before the next exam.

9. Did they do better after an intervention?
PHYS 250
FE ‐M1
Final Exam
Final Exam
M1 (%) M2 (%) (%)
10 students
(with intervention) 8.1
64.5 83.4 72.6
Next 16 student
Next 16 student
(w/o inter. or ‐4.5
email) 77.4 80.3 72.9
Entire class except
10 intervened stds ‐5.7
81.5 83.1 76

10. Do students do better
EOSC 112
after an i t
ft intervention?
ti ?
Average, non‐interv students
Medians,
all & non=int

11. Do students do better EOSC 112
after an intervention?

12. EOSC 112
Intervention students report
changing study habits
2 = Changed study habits “a lot”
1 Changed study habits a little
1 = Changed study habits “a little”
0 = Did not change study habits

13. How do we know the intervention PHYS 250
was responsible?
Previous results clearly established that intervention had large effect, but it does not say why.
For instance………did they really change their study habits or simply worked much harder for
For instance did they really change their study habits or simply worked much harder for
the rest of the term?
At end of semester, we conducted interviews with the “10 student intervened group”.
For comparison, identical interviews were carried primarily with those students scoring in the
next higher quartile after the first midterm (“control group”) .
To avoid biasing the student responses, the interviews were carried out by a third person
To avoid biasing the student responses the interviews were carried out by a third person
who was unknown to the students and followed a very strict and limited script.
1‐ How do you typically prepare for exams in science and eng courses here at ubc
2‐ How did you prepare for midterm 1 in phys250
dd f d h
3‐ How did you prepare for midterm 2 in phys250 ‐‐ did you change anything in the way you
prepared for M1 Vs M2? If so, what?
y y g f /
4‐ What study advice would you give another PHYS250 student in our course for him/her to
do well in the course.
5‐ What study advice would you give another student in OTHER science and eng courses for
him/her to do well.

14. How do we know the intervention was responsible?
studied pre rev
student diff
t d t differently notes
tl t HW* LGs*
LG * book*
b k* read*
d* sess** more other
th
m1‐
1 int yes NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW
m1‐
m1
2 int yes m1 m1 NEW NEW
3 int yes m1 m1 m1 m1 NEW
4 int
4 int yes
yes NEW NEW NEW
5 int yes m1 NEW m1 NEW
6 int no m1 m1
7 int
7 int yes
yes m1 m1 m1 m1 NEW
8 int yes m1 NEW
9 int no m1 m1
10 int y
yes m1 m1 m1 NEW NEW
11 c
No Int no m1
12 c
No Int no m1 m1
13 c

15. Conclusions and
Suggestions for interventions:
‐ These results demonstrate that student performance should not
be considered something outside of the instructor s control
be considered something outside of the instructor’s control
‐ Can make a dramatic difference in performance with minor but
appropriately targeted i t
i t l t t d intervention to improve study habits.
ti t i t d h bit
‐ Course needs to be structured with all components aligned
(learning goals, assignments, assessments,…