Measuring Connections Between Affect and Motivation in Informal STEM Learning

• In Event: 63.064 - Measuring the Impact of Emotions in Informal Learning Environments

Abstract

Objectives. This study aimed to develop multi-modal Epistemic Network Analysis models of academic, motivational, and affective dimensions of informal international STEM focused digital makerspace participation.

Perspectives. This research stems from an overarching conjecture that collaborations bridging international, economic, cultural, and generational differences may have high potential to foster mutually reinforcing academic and affective growth in collaborating students. Moreover, to understand learning in this domain, researchers must attend to the network of affective and academic constructs at play. This study moves beyond previous studies in the area (Eagan & Hamilton, 2018) and is grounded in Epistemic Frame Theory and Quantitative Ethnography (Shaffer, 2017).

Setting. This study focuses on a digital makerspace community of fifteen clubs in Africa, Europe, and North America involving participants, ages 10-19, who create digital artifacts to support peer STEM learning. The community is known as International Community for Collaborative Content Creation (IC4). IC4 clubs focus on cognitive, affective and social aspects of creating digital media.

Techniques. We video recorded interviews of club participants focused on why they participate in IC4 which we coded for constructs related to cognitive, affective, and social processes involved in creating digital media. In addition, we coded the participants’ nonverbal communication cues, such as facial expressions, gesture and gaze for affective states (Plutchik, 1980). We then used Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to model their discourse patterns, including their affective appearance. Initial ENA models of the interviews revealed that the five students clustered into one group of two and one group of three. We then used ENA to compare the multimodal discourse patterns of the individuals in both groups.

Results. Our figures will show the subtracted network of Group1 versus Group2. Where the network is green, students in Group1 had stronger connections, where it is orange, Group2 had stronger connections. Group1 had stronger connections between Collaborative Disposition, Serenity/Joy/Ecstasy, Ability to see perspective of others, and Interest/Anticipation/Vigilance while Group2 had much stronger connections between Motivation, Self-Awareness, Acceptance/Trust/Admiration, and Self-Efficacy. A two sample t test assuming unequal variance showed Group1 (mean=-0.17, SD=0.43, N=27 was statistically significantly different at the alpha=0.05 level from Group2 (mean=0.10, SD=0.40, N=48; t(50.89)= -2.65, p=0.01, Cohen's d=0.65) along the Y-Axis (see Figure 2).

Significance. These results provide proof of concept for multimodal affective ENA and show the ways in which students may differ in terms of their interest, motivation, and affective states. We found some students focused on collaboration and seeing the perspectives of others which was coupled with feelings of interest and serenity, while others focused more on themselves and their motivation coupled with feelings of acceptance. Future work will refine these affective ENA models and search for broader patterns or sub-populations within larger populations of learners.

Authors

• Brendan R. Eagan, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Kristina Lux, Pepperdine University

• Eric R. Hamilton, Pepperdine University

• Seung Bok Lee