Chemistry education research has increasingly considered the role of affect when investigating chemistry learning environments over the past decade. Despite its popularity in educational spheres, mindset has been understudied from a chemistry-specific perspective. Mindset encompasses one's beliefs about the ability to change intelligence with effort and has been shown to be a domain-specific construct. For this reason, students’ mindset would be most relevant in chemistry if it were measured as a chemistry-specific construct. To date, no instrument has been developed for use in chemistry learning contexts. Here we present evidence supporting the development process and final product of a mindset instrument designed specifically for undergraduate chemistry students. The Chemistry Mindset Instrument (CheMI) was developed through an iterative design process requiring multiple implementations and revisions. We analyze the psychometric properties of CheMI data from a sample of introductory (general and organic) chemistry students enrolled in lecture courses. We achieved good data-model fit via confirmatory factor analysis and high reliability for the newly developed items, indicating that the instrument functions well with the target population. Significant correlations were observed for chemistry mindset with students’ self-efficacy, mastery goals, and course performance, providing external validity evidence for the construct measurement.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on February 13, 2025
Investigating the Relations between Students’ Chemistry Mindset, Self-Efficacy, and Goal Orientation in General and Organic Chemistry Lecture Courses
Students’ view of intelligence (i.e., their mindset beliefs) has been found to be related to their self-efficacy and goal orientations as well as to influence their course outcomes. Comparisons of students’ chemistry mindset between different groups found that organic chemistry I students held more of a growth mindset than general chemistry I students at the beginning of a term. Additionally, men tended to hold more growth mindset beliefs than women. Given these differences, structural equation modeling was used to explore the relations between students’ mindset, self-efficacy, and goal orientations, along with their relation to achievement outcomes within a course. An indirect effect of mindset on summative achievement was found to be mediated through performance-avoidance goals, whereas the relation between self-efficacy and summative achievement was mediated through performance-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-avoidance goal orientations. While mindset was not found to be directly or indirectly related to formative achievement outcomes, self-efficacy was found to have an indirect effect on formative achievement through mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goal orientations. Additionally, an interaction between mindset and self-efficacy was found to be related to performance-avoidance goals, as has been suggested in prior studies. These results point to the importance of mindset on achievement outcomes while also considering influences from self-efficacy and goal orientations. Future work is encouraged to investigate how these variables are related when they are measured throughout a term.
more »
« less
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10531498
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of Chemical Education
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Chemical Education
- Volume:
- 101
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0021-9584
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 270 to 282
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)The Achievement Goal Framework describes students’ goal orientations as: task-based, focusing on the successful completion of the task; self-based, evaluating performance relative to one's own past performance; or other-based, evaluating performance relative to the performance of others. Goal orientations have been used to explain student success in a range of educational settings, but have not been used in post-secondary chemistry. This study describes the goal orientations of General Chemistry students and explores the relationship of goal orientations to success in the course. On average, students report higher task and self orientations than other orientation. Task orientation had a positive relationship with exam performance and self orientation had a negative relationship with exam performance. Clustering students showed that for the majority of students task and self orientations moved concurrently and students with low preference across the three orientations also performed lowest on exams. Finally, students in classes using Flipped-Peer Led Team Learning, a pedagogy designed to bring active learning to a large lecture class, showed higher task orientation than those in classes with lecture-based instruction.more » « less
-
Students in entry level CS courses come from diverse backgrounds and are learning study and time management skills. Our belief for their success is that they must master a growth mindset and that the final grade should represent their final mastery of topics in the course. Traditional grading systems tend to be too restrictive and hinder a growth mindset. They require strict deadlines that fail to easily account for student accommodations and learning differences. Furthermore, they run into averaging and scaling issues with 59% of a score counting as failing, making it difficult for students to redeem grades even if they later demonstrate mastery of topics. We designed a formative/summative grading system in our CS0 and CS1 classes for both on-campus and online students to support a structured growth mindset. Students can redo formative assignments and are provided flexible deadlines. They demonstrate their mastery in summative assignments. While being inspired by other grading systems, our system works seamlessly with auto-grading tools used in large, structured courses. Despite the flexibility, the courses provided a level of rigor before allowing students to continue onto the next course. Overall, 65% of students resubmitted assignments increasing their scores, participated in ungraded assignments, and used formative assignments for additional practice without a distinction between race or gender. These students went to the traditional follow-on CS2 course and 94% passed compared with 71% who took CS1 with a traditional grading system.more » « less
-
Students (like all people) have elements of both growth and fixed mindsets. We studied shifts in both types of student mindsets over three one-semester courses. We found no significant change in students’ growth mindset at the beginning of the semester compared to the end of the semester. However, students’ fixed mindsets showed a statistically significant increase from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester. Two multilevel models were used to understand why students’ fixed mindsets may have increased 1) personal sourcesmastery goal, performance goal, and internal recognition, and 2) situational sourcesclassroom goal orientations and external recognition. Students’ endorsement of a performance goal orientation, which focuses on demonstrating competence and managing others’ perception of their abilities, increased their fixed mindset views at the end of the semester. In the model focused on situational sources, we found that students’ fixed mindset increased when they perceived their classroom environment endorsed a performance-approach goal structure and by receiving external recognition. When comparing both models, students’ fixed mindset increase was largely explained by classroom environmental sources. Specifically, students’ fixed mindsets increased when they perceived that their classroom environment valued a demonstration of competence (i.e., classroom performance-approach). Being recognized as an engineer by peers and instructors also increased students’ fixed views of their abilities. Conversely, one situational source was found to decrease students’ fixed mindset views, i.e., a classroom environment that promotes mastery goals. Our study points to an apparent and crucial role engineering classroom environments have in promoting certain mindsets. The study concludes with one pedagogical strategy that may help mitigate the inadvertent promotion of a fixed mindset, e.g., a mastery learning pedagogical intervention.more » « less
-
more » « less
Abstract Teachers play a critical role in successfully implementing science education reforms in the United States to provide high‐quality science learning opportunities to all students. However, the differentiated ways in which teachers make decisions about their science teaching are not well understood. This study takes a person‐centered approach by applying latent profile analysis to examine how cognitive (pedagogical content knowledge) and motivational (instructional goal orientations, self‐efficacy beliefs, and reform values) characteristics combine to form science teacher profiles in middle school. Predictors of profile membership (bachelor's degree, school %FRL) and both teacher (science instructional practices) and student (science achievement, engagement, and self‐efficacy) outcomes related to the teacher profiles were also examined. Five science teacher profiles were identified (severely discouraged but reform oriented, discouraged but reform oriented, conventional, confident and mastery oriented, and confident with multiple goal approaches) that represented unique configurations of cognitive and motivation characteristics. Additionally, findings showed that the teacher profiles were significantly related to three dimensions of science instructional practice including communication, discourse, and reasoning. Finally, the teacher profiles were significantly related to student science achievement and motivational outcomes. Implications for differentiated approaches to teacher professional learning and supports for science instruction are discussed.
