Understanding the Nature, Predictors, and Consequences of Students' Heterogeneous Perceptions of Opportunities for Deeper Learning (Poster 15)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Classroom experiences provide important opportunities for students to develop essential competencies for academic success: confidence, value for academics, and self-regulatory behaviors. Students in the same school view classroom experiences differently, but the nature and roles of these varying perceptions is unclear from extant research. Using data from the Study of Deeper Learning, this study examined the nature and correlates of secondary students’ perceptions of Real-World Connections, Personalized Supports, and Academic Press, three opportunities that align with recommendations from theory and research. Factor analyses indicated variation in perceptions was largely between students, but that student perceptions can be modeled as school- and student-level factors using a doubly latent multilevel model that accounts for measurement error and school- and student-level variance. Latent profile analyses of student-level perceptions revealed five profiles reflecting the heterogeneous ways students viewed opportunities in school. Gender significantly predicted profile membership, with girls being more likely to be in profiles with high perceptions of Academic Press, including the Low Real World Connections profile. Profile membership showed complex relations to outcomes, however students perceiving high levels of all three opportunities tended to show the best intrapersonal, achievement, and educational persistence outcomes, followed by the High Academic Press and Moderate All profiles. Findings suggest most students perceive their teachers as supportive of their best efforts, but that academic press may best facilitate students’ outcomes when paired with real-world connections and personalization. Findings further support students’ personal characteristics, particularly gender, as a lens through which students view their experiences in school.

Author

• Kristy A. Robinson, McGill University
  Presenting Author