Which first-year students are making most learning gains in STEM subjects?

Figures & data

Table 1. Distribution of students across nine modules based on their socio-demographic characteristics.

Variables	M 1	M 2	M 3	M 4	M 5	M 6	M 7	M 8	M 9
Female	44.7%	28.9%	37.1%	53.1%	73.4%	8.3%	16.7%	39.7%	44%
Male	55.3%	71.1%	62.9%	46.9%	26.6%	91.7%	83.3%	60.3%	56%
White	88.1%	91.5%	94.0%	90.8%	89.0%	94.1%	91.8%	90.2%	92.3%
Black	2.8%	1.7%	0.9%	00.0%	4.1%	1.7%	2.2%	3.3%	3.5%
Asian	5.1%	4.7%	2.8%	6.1%	4.1%	1.5%	3.5%	2.7%	3%
Mixed/Other	4.0%	2.1%	2.3%	3.1%	2.7%	2.7%	2.5%	3.8%	1.2%
A level or equivalent	50.6%	48.5%	52.0%	65.3%	50.3%	47.7%	50.8%	50.0%	51.9%
HE/PG qualification	36.8%	40.4%	25.5%	19.4%	26.1%	26.2%	19.1%	21.2%	22.2%
Lower than A level/No formal qualification	12.6%	11.1%	22.5%	15.3%	23.6%	26.1%	30.1%	28.8%	25.9%
Other SES	90.1%	90.6%	85.2%	84.7%	89%	86.1%	84%	87.5%	86.2%
Low SES	9.9%	9.4%	14.8%	15.3%	11%	13.9%	16%	12.5%	13.8%
Total n	253	235	816	98	364	660	1207	184	405

Students were deemed to be from a low SES background if: (1) they had no previous HE qualification and they live in a neighbourhood ranked in the lowest quintile of the POLAR 3 classification (in England and Northern Ireland only); (2) they live in a neighbourhood ranked in the lowest quintile of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (Scotland only) and (3) they live in either a neighbourhood ranked in the lowest quintile of the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, or a Communities First cluster (Wales only).M – Module

Figure 1. A three-level data structure with repeated measures (continuous assessment scores) at level-1, students at level-2 and modules at level-3.

Table 2. Mean and standard deviations across all continuous assessments for each of the nine level-1 modules.

	First assessment		Final Assessment		Average continuous assessment score
Module	M (Median)	SD	M (Median)	SD	M (Median)	SD
Module 1	83.3 (86)	11.0	89.5 (92)	9.3	82.3 (86)	14.3
Module 2	55.0 (47)	22.2	88.0 (91)	11.6	72.3 (72)	21.6
Module 3	77.9 (80)	12.5	84.7 (87)	9.6	74.1 (74)	18.2
Module 4	70.7 (74.5)	17.8	81.1 (83)	12.7	73.0 (73)	17.0
Module 5	77.2 (79)	12.3	84.2 (86)	9.0	76.7 (77)	13.4
Module 6	88.2 (91)	9.6	89.6 (91)	7.7	82.7 (83)	13.2
Module 7	41.1 (42)	5.5	79.3 (86)	18.7	62.2 (62)	22.0
Module 8	85.0 (87)	10.8	89.8 (90)	6.6	80.9 (81)	14.5
Module 9	81.4 (83)	9.9	86.1 (87)	8.0	76.7 (77)	13.8

Note: The TMAs are marked on a scale from 0 to 100. The minimum passing mark is 40.

Figure 2. Learning gain trajectories across nine STEM modules.

Table 3. Intercept, slope and deviance statistics for model comparison.

	Regression	S.E.	2-level	S.E.	3-level	S.E.
Intercept B0	70.985	0.215	74.59	4.694	74.575	4.698
Slope B1	1.008**	0.086	0.772	1.531	0.719	1.537
Deviance	194,290.47		184,543.8		179,112.39
X^2 change			9746.668**		5431.416**
** p < 0.01

Table 4. Unstandardised beta coefficients for the main effects of each socio-demographic predictor (Model 2) and interactions between socio-demographic predictors and time (Model 3).

	Model 1	S.E.	Model 2	S.E.	Model 3	S.E.
VPC
Level 3	0.535
Level 2	0.085
Level 1	0.380
Variance change			0.103		0.001
Fixed Part
Intercept	74.58	4.70	75.20	4.68	75.15	4.69
B1 Slope	0.72	1.54	0.72	1.54	0.78	1.54
B2 Ethnicity Other			−4.54**	0.54	−4.29**	0.57
B6 HE/PG qualification			1.80**	0.36	1.51**	0.38
B7 Lower than A level/No formal qualification			−2.15**	0.36	−1.80**	0.38
B9 Low SES			−1.62**	0.43	−1.43**	0.45
B11 Time*Ethnicity Other					−0.31	0.23
B15 Time*HE/PG qualification					0.35*	0.15
B16 Time*Lower than A level/No formal qualification					−0.44**	0.15
B18 Time*Low SES					−0.23	0.18
Deviance	194,660.9		194,453.9		194,418.6
X^2 change			207.1**		35.3*

VPC – Variance Partition Coefficient * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; n = 4222; number of modules = 9.

Figure 3. Academic achievement of students with different prior educational qualifications over time (interaction between prior educational qualification and time of the assessment).