How UCI is Using Two Story to Drive Student Success
Student Success
Education
Retention
Persistence
We’ve tried everything. It’s bad and getting worse.
Gillian Hayes, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Academic Personnel UC - Irvine
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Case Studies
UCI
Background
Retention rates for PhD programs currently decrease from approximately 90% in year two to 79% in year four. Non-completion of a PhD creates a variety of negative impacts:
For the institution:
Financial investment by programs can be as high as $60,000 per year per student and climbing.
Rankings in some fields are tied to numbers of PhDs graduated as opposed to overall enrollment.
Reputational damage can occur when too many students leave programs without completing the PhD.
For the student:
Even though fully funded, there are opportunity costs for salaries at full-time jobs.
Experience in a PhD program that does not result in a degree may not position students well for outside jobs beyond their undergraduate training.
Stigma and other costs related to potential for non-completion lead to mental health consequences for struggling students.
About Habit Story
At Two Story, we focus on habits because of the central role they play in human behavior. Too often, we think of habits as simply the things we realize we do, our conscious behaviors. But habits are so much more.
Habits are ingrained behaviors that stem from the pathways your brain has formed over time. Though various assessments can be useful for determining preferences and values, habits tell us how our neurobiology drives behavior. In short, the Habit Story assessment provides a way to understand the root cause of behavior.
We can divide habits into two broad categories: productive and counterproductive. Productive habits serve us, while counterproductive habits do not. (Counterproductive habits likely served us at some point, but no longer offer much value.)
Both kinds of habits are based on the same four activating emotions—drive, care, fear, and hope. Productive habits use these activating emotions to help an individual pursue and secure opportunities while avoiding and resolving problems. Counterproductive habits, on the other hand, misappropriate these emotions to squander opportunities and permit negative outcomes.
Attend
Protect
React
Anticipate
Respond
Resolve
Drive
Care
Fear
Hope
Deny
Resign
Neglect
Sabotage
Strain
Presume
Dismiss
Blame Shift
Enjoy
Achieve
There are two additional sections in the Habit Story assessment - Response Pattern and Emotional State. These sections add helpful context to the habits and reveal how the individual is impacted by their environment.
Response Pattern Defined: Response pattern reflects the typical approach to interacting with a dynamic environment. It measures the general disposition towards new experiences, decision points, and obstacles.
Emotional State Defined: Emotional State measures the quantity and composition of emotional energy.
Objective
Decode the drivers of PhD student retention and enable leaders on campus to be more data-driven, proactive and personalized in their approach to student success.
Scope of Pilot Project (Fall 2023)
Invite two cohorts of students - those who began the PhD program in the fall of 2022 (N=300) and the fall of 2023 (N=300) - to complete the Habit Story assessment (see appendix). [Complete]
Facilitate a one-hour seminar for students. [Complete]
Discover the patterns between Habit Story results and the following outcomes.
Factors
Sub-categories
Coursework
Average GPA
Pace to complete coursework (# of quarters)
Qualifying exams (1st attempt, 2nd attempt…etc., N/A)
Research
Conference Attendance (Yes/No)
Funding (USD$)
Number of submitted posters
Number of published papers
Advisor
Advisor relationship secured prior to program (Yes/No)
Number of advisor changes during program
Completion
Persistence
Graduate with PhD (Yes/No)
Invite two cohorts of students - those who began the PhD program in the fall of 2022 (N=300) and the fall of 2023 (N=300) - to complete the Habit Story assessment.
Facilitate a one-hour seminar for students.
Discover the patterns between Habit Story results and the following outcomes.
Initial Results
255 students participated in the Fall 2023 pilot project and completed the Habit Story assessment.
The graph below displays a composite profile of the pilot cohort, comparing their mean results vs. the global average for each feature.
The graph below displays the variance of results by feature.
Initial Results: Observations
Doctoral students at UCI are experiencing high levels of burnout, particularly in the three key areas referred to as the “burnout triad”: Blame Shift, Drain, and Strain.
“Drain” reflects the degree to which recent setbacks and losses detract from an individual’s overall emotional health, and their capacity to feel empowered to resolve challenges.
"Blame Shift" is the habit of feeling powerless to change one’s circumstances. This pattern tolerates and justifies stress as inevitable, resulting in delayed action.
"Strain" is the habit of pain-inducing exertion, characterized by pushing oneself beyond what’s reasonable, despite signals that one should pull back.
These habits are interconnected and create a vicious cycle.
e.g., Drain, caused by setbacks and losses, often leads to Strain, where individuals push themselves beyond their limits, further perpetuating the cycle and deepening their sense of futility and Blame Shift.
Low emotional stability scores indicate that doctoral students struggle to emotionally regulate during times of stress and ambiguity, and may become distracted by negative circumstances that hinder their agency and problem-solving capacity.
Overall, the elevated variance scores indicate that the student experience is highly contextual and varies significantly between students.
The team at Two Story posits that there is a critical factor in student success, namely the emotional resilience of the student. This multifaceted competency identifies the student’s capacity to navigate personal and professional hardship successfully and remain motivated and resilient.
Recommendations
Continue the pilot program at UCI with the longitudinal study of the initial cohort.
Explore ways to incorporate Habit Story data into existing student success programs to measure student well-being and deploy proactive interventions to improve the graduation rate of doctoral students (e.g. equip the appropriate student success leaders and counseling staff to incorporate insights from the Habit Story instrument into their coaching and guidance).
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