The Power of Peer Experiences: Shifts in Science Motivation and Impacts on Performance

Interacting with others is an important aspect of life. Especially in education, collaborations can help students learn. Unfortunately, there are often systemic barriers of science being perceived as individualistic, which may impact student success in science. Therefore, this study investigated how college students’ ( n = 672) social experiences (including learning benefits from peer ideas, LBP) in an introductory biology laboratory course was related to their science motivation and performance. Initial correlational analysis showed positive associations amongst students’ social experiences, science motivation, and course performance. Regression analysis demonstrated a change in LBP and interaction of this with first-generation student (FGS) status, were important predictors of final science motivation. Science motivation, in turn, was able to predict student performance in the course. Interestingly, although science motivation was predictive of performance for all students, FGS status interacted with science motivation to predict performance only in the laboratory that featured a more collaborative curriculum. Results suggest that experiencing LBP may impact all students’ science motivation and through this course performance. Yet these relationships may be more critical for FGS in collaborative classroom environments. Implications for optimizing LBP in introductory life science courses will be explored.