What College Is For: Exploring College Students' Lived Experience of Appreciation

• In Event: 68.050 - Motivation and Emotion in Achievement Contexts

Abstract

Appreciation (Brophy, 1999, 2008a, 2008b) is a promising framework for understanding what makes higher education relevant, but there has been little empirical or additional theoretical work on the construct. The current study took a qualitative approach, using interviews with undergraduates to better understand the lived experience of appreciation. Students’ experiences were characterized by cognitive, behavioral, and affective aspects, each encapsulating a few subthemes. Additionally, students varied in the number and type of these aspects they experienced, as did the worthwhile courses they described. This suggests that students’ individual differences and the discipline of the course play a role in these experiences. The results offer a more concrete picture of appreciation and inform the debate about what makes college relevant.

Authors

• Megan Sanders, Colorado School of Mines

• Lynley H. Anderman, The Ohio State University