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Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions

Expectancy-value theory of motivation (EVT) suggests that student values influence their likelihood of putting in the effort required to learn, and these values can be shaped by student characteristics, such as their experiences, sociodemographics, and disciplinary norms. To understand the extent to...

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Autores principales: Wheeler, Lindsay B., Thompson, Katerina V., Marbach-Ad, Gili, Sheehan, Patrick, Bortiatynski, Jacqueline L., Ghent, Cindy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10228268/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36877192
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-06-0101
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author Wheeler, Lindsay B.
Thompson, Katerina V.
Marbach-Ad, Gili
Sheehan, Patrick
Bortiatynski, Jacqueline L.
Ghent, Cindy
author_facet Wheeler, Lindsay B.
Thompson, Katerina V.
Marbach-Ad, Gili
Sheehan, Patrick
Bortiatynski, Jacqueline L.
Ghent, Cindy
author_sort Wheeler, Lindsay B.
collection PubMed
description Expectancy-value theory of motivation (EVT) suggests that student values influence their likelihood of putting in the effort required to learn, and these values can be shaped by student characteristics, such as their experiences, sociodemographics, and disciplinary norms. To understand the extent to which these characteristics relate to students’ values, we surveyed 1162 graduating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students across four universities using the previously developed and validated Survey of Teaching Beliefs and Practices for Undergraduates (STEP-U). The STEP-U survey included Likert questions to capture students’ values of 27 cross-disciplinary skills and the frequency with which they experienced 27 instructional methods thought to develop particular skills. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) showed an understandable factor structure for both students’ perceived value of cross-disciplinary skills and frequency of classroom experiences. Using multiple regression, we identified differences in values that were associated with classroom experiences, STEM discipline, participation in undergraduate research, and student sociodemographics. Findings were generalizable across institutions and disciplines. The theoretical framework (EVT), the broad data collection (four institutions with multiple disciplines), and the type of data analyses (e.g., EFA) used provide theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions and suggest additional directions for future research.
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spelling pubmed-102282682023-06-01 Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions Wheeler, Lindsay B. Thompson, Katerina V. Marbach-Ad, Gili Sheehan, Patrick Bortiatynski, Jacqueline L. Ghent, Cindy CBE Life Sci Educ General Essays and Articles Expectancy-value theory of motivation (EVT) suggests that student values influence their likelihood of putting in the effort required to learn, and these values can be shaped by student characteristics, such as their experiences, sociodemographics, and disciplinary norms. To understand the extent to which these characteristics relate to students’ values, we surveyed 1162 graduating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students across four universities using the previously developed and validated Survey of Teaching Beliefs and Practices for Undergraduates (STEP-U). The STEP-U survey included Likert questions to capture students’ values of 27 cross-disciplinary skills and the frequency with which they experienced 27 instructional methods thought to develop particular skills. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) showed an understandable factor structure for both students’ perceived value of cross-disciplinary skills and frequency of classroom experiences. Using multiple regression, we identified differences in values that were associated with classroom experiences, STEM discipline, participation in undergraduate research, and student sociodemographics. Findings were generalizable across institutions and disciplines. The theoretical framework (EVT), the broad data collection (four institutions with multiple disciplines), and the type of data analyses (e.g., EFA) used provide theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions and suggest additional directions for future research. American Society for Cell Biology 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10228268/ /pubmed/36877192 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-06-0101 Text en © 2023 L. B. Wheeler et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2023 The American Society for Cell Biology. “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported Creative Commons License.
spellingShingle General Essays and Articles
Wheeler, Lindsay B.
Thompson, Katerina V.
Marbach-Ad, Gili
Sheehan, Patrick
Bortiatynski, Jacqueline L.
Ghent, Cindy
Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions
title Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions
title_full Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions
title_fullStr Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions
title_full_unstemmed Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions
title_short Factors Predicting the Extent to which STEM Students Value Cross-Disciplinary Skills: A Study across Four Institutions
title_sort factors predicting the extent to which stem students value cross-disciplinary skills: a study across four institutions
topic General Essays and Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10228268/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36877192
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-06-0101
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