Student Learning Dispositions: Multidimensional Profiles Highlight Important Differences among Undergraduate STEM Honors Thesis Writers

Student Learning Dispositions: Multidimensional Profiles Highlight Important Differences among Undergraduate STEM Honors Thesis Writers

Various personal dimensions of students--particularly motivation, self-efficacy beliefs, and epistemic beliefs--can change in response to teaching, affect student learning, and be conceptualized as learning dispositions. We propose that these learning dispositions serve as learning outcomes in their...

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Published in:CBE life sciences education Vol. 18; no. 2; p. ar28
Main Authors: Dowd, Jason E, Thompson, Robert J., Jr, Schiff, Leslie, Haas, Kelaine, Hohmann, Christine, Roy, Chris, Meck, Warren, Bruno, John, Reynolds, Julie A
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States American Society for Cell Biology 01-06-2019
Subjects:
Capstone Experiences
Correlation
Curriculum
Engineering - education
Epistemology
Ethnicity
Female
Gender Differences
Grade Point Average
Honors Curriculum
Humans
Learning
Linear Models
Majors (Students)
Male
Mathematics - education
Motivation
Multilevel Analysis
Problem Solving
Profiles
Scaffolding (Teaching Technique)
Science
Scientific Research
Self Concept
Self Efficacy
STEM Education
Student Attitudes
Student Motivation
Students
Technology - education
Theses
Undergraduate Students
Universities
Writing
Writing (Composition)
North Carolina
West Virginia
Minnesota
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Summary:Various personal dimensions of students--particularly motivation, self-efficacy beliefs, and epistemic beliefs--can change in response to teaching, affect student learning, and be conceptualized as learning dispositions. We propose that these learning dispositions serve as learning outcomes in their own right; that patterns of interrelationships among these specific learning dispositions are likely; and that differing constellations (or learning disposition profiles) may have meaningful implications for instructional practices. In this observational study, we examine changes in these learning dispositions in the context of six courses at four institutions designed to scaffold undergraduate thesis writing and promote students' scientific reasoning in writing in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We explore the utility of cluster analysis for generating meaningful learning disposition profiles and building a more sophisticated understanding of students as complex, multidimensional learners. For example, while students' self-efficacy beliefs about writing and science increased across capstone writing courses on average, there was considerable variability at the level of individual students. When responses on all of the personal dimensions were analyzed jointly using cluster analysis, several distinct and meaningful learning disposition profiles emerged. We explore these profiles in this work and discuss the implications of this framework for describing developmental trajectories of students' scientific identities.
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ISSN:1931-7913
1931-7913
DOI:10.1187/cbe.18-07-0141