A new study in the Journal of Experiential Education suggests community-based learning may help more underrepresented students pursue STEM degrees, but highlights major gaps in how its impacts are studied.
Jesse Akman, health and life sciences librarian and associate librarian; Kelsey Bitting, assistant professor of environmental studies; and Jessica Merricks, associate professor of biology, recently published the article “Do Community-Based Learning Experiences in STEM Encourage Students From Historically Underrepresented Backgrounds to Pursue STEM? A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review” in the Journal of Experiential Education.
Community-based learning (CBL) gives students opportunities to address real-world challenges by partnering with local community organizations. Through their experience leading a community-engaged unit in environmental studies, Merricks and Bitting recognized that little research directly examines how CBL affects students from historically underrepresented STEM backgrounds (e.g., women, students of color, and first-generation college students).
Working with Akman, an expert in systematic reviews, the team analyzed existing research on whether CBL experiences influence students’ pursuit of STEM majors or minors, their career intentions, and their sense of belonging in STEM fields. From more than 500 publications published between 1999 and 2024, the authors identified nine studies that met the criteria for inclusion.
Their analysis revealed a major gap in the literature. Few studies systematically examined the impact of CBL pedagogies in STEM. Most did not compare CBL with other teaching approaches, making it difficult to draw strong conclusions about its effectiveness. In addition, only a small number of studies analyzed outcomes across demographic groups such as race/ethnicity, first-generation status, or gender. The authors conclude that more rigorous research is needed, including studies that compare CBL with other pedagogies and systematically examine outcomes across different student populations.