A holistic approach to preparing disadvantaged students to succeed in tertiary science studies .2. Outcomes of the Science Foundation Programme

The Science Foundation Programme (SFP) is a year-long pre-degree programme designed to identify academically talented but underprepared black students who wish to pursue tertiary studies in science or applied science, and help them develop their potential in order to achieve this aim. In the model of the foundation programme adopted, we attempted to identify underlying skills, attitudes and resources that would help students succeed in their studies, and then tried to help the students acquire these in as efficient and lasting a way as possible. Thus the focus of the resulting curriculum is on issues such as cognitive skills, practical skills, effective study attitudes and strategies, peer learning, articulation and communication of understandings, positive coping skills, self-reliance, confidence-building and awareness of how each individual student learns best. The specific content was chosen primarily in order to provide a vehicle for the development of useful scientific skills, rather than for its own sake, and the amount of content in the programme was deliberately restricted in order to allow room for the explicit inclusion of cognitive and practical skills in the curriculum and to focus on the process of learning. The programme consists of courses in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and English language development, together with a counselling component. This paper focuses on the implementation and results of the SFP after the initial design period. Three groups of students have now completed the programme, comprising 31, 32 and 36 students. Student responses are used to indicate the extent to which the aims of the programme appear to have been met. Unless otherwise indicated, these responses were made by students while they were enrolled in the SFP. Students who had been in the SFP one or two years earlier are labelled 'first year student' and 'second year student', respectively. In reading the quotes, it should be remembered that the students are second language English speakers. Results to date will also be presented.