Retaining Students In STEM Majors Analysis

Rhetorical Strategies in “Retaining Students in STEM Majors”
While the number of students entering college with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors is increasing; the number of STEM major graduating college is decreasing. In 2013, Jessica Watkins and Eric Mazur wrote “Retaining Students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Majors,” published in the Journal of College Science Teaching, and argues STEM students benefit more from peer instructed (PI) courses than traditional courses.The authors wrote the paper to determine the correlation between types of classes and number of STEM major students changing majors. In “Retaining Students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
The main point of focus for the articles was the argument of traditional courses vs. peer instructed courses for college STEM classes. The article states STEM students benefit more from PI courses than traditional courses because it gets students to think in unique ways and allows for more active participation in the class. The article found students enjoy “openness” within their classroom. In the data from the articles showing the number of students switching was half the originally when colleges introduced PI courses. Freshmen have a higher chance of changing majors compared to upperclassmen with both traditional and PI classes. Peer instructed classes also have higher test scores compared to traditional classes. This article provides strong reasoning why STEM students benefit more from PI courses than traditional courses. and provides a method to lessen the number of college students changing from STEM majors to non-STEM
Referencing their own data allowed the authors to appeal to logos with the results of their own research. They included the research from their own study after stating the information from other studies. On page 38 the authors stated, “traditionally taught introductory physics course and switched out of a STEM major is more than twice that of students enrolled in the courses taught using PI.” The use of their own research allows the authors to appeal to logos by having their own research that agrees with their claim at the beginning and the research of others. The Watkins and Mazur’s research provided readers the information needed to prove their claims in the paper. The personal research allowed the paper to be more credible and be an overall stronger