A Qualitative Study of College STEM Student Perceptions of Their Instructors’ Beliefs about Intelligence and Ability

• In Event: Investigating Field-Specific Ability Beliefs: How Do They Matter and for Whom?

Abstract

Theoretical Framework and Objectives
Instructors’ beliefs about their students’ abilities (called “lay theories”) impact students’ academic and psychosocial outcomes. Researchers have defined and explored three distinct lay theories that impact student outcomes: beliefs about whether intellectual abilities can be improved (mindset belief), whether all or only some students can achieve the highest ability (universality belief) and the extent to which high ability is required for success (brilliance belief). These instructor beliefs shape the classroom environment that students navigate. For example, prior research shows that when instructors believe that students’ abilities do not change, but rather that some students have more ability than others, students experience a threatening class climate and marginalized students underperform their peers. However, the mechanism through which instructor beliefs foster these outcomes is currently unknown. In this qualitative study, we explore how students interpret their instructors’ words and actions to infer their instructors’ beliefs. Specifically, we sought to characterize the content and mode of instructor communication that inform students’ perceptions of their instructors’ beliefs and whether different types of messages communicated different beliefs.
Method
We interviewed 24 students in introductory biology courses at four US universities. We recruited volunteers with a screening survey and purposely selected participants to represent the range of identities and perspectives. During the interview, we asked participants to answer questions about their instructors’ beliefs and explain why they selected that response. We took a semi-structured approach, which allowed us to probe for more detail with follow-up questions as needed. We conducted thematic analysis to characterize the content and mode of instructor messages that communicated their beliefs to students.
Results
We identified four themes of the content of instructor messages that students use to infer their instructors’ beliefs: affordances (instructor messages about what student traits enable success), goal orientations (how the instructor defines success in the class), distribution of achievement (instructor messages about what proportion of students is likely to succeed), and attributions of student performance (instructor messages about what factors caused student success or failure). We identified a variety of modalities through which these messages are communicated: verbal statements (e.g., explicitly stating belief), actions (e.g., providing resources), course policies (e.g., assessment structure), and non-verbal behaviors (e.g., attitude). We also found that some participants perceived misalignment of messages, suggesting mixed beliefs. Further, some students made assumptions about their instructors’ beliefs based on the institutional context, the professor’s experience, educators’ identity, or the students’ personal beliefs. Students most frequently reported that their perceptions of their instructors’ belief were influenced by their instructors saying that effort and hard work enable success.
Significance

We identified a diversity of ways in which instructors communicate their beliefs to students, suggesting that there are many pathways for instructors to transmit positive belief signals to students. Our results could be used to help instructors identify ways they can foster positive classroom environments.

Authors

• Lisa B Limeri, Texas Tech University

• Anastasia Chouvalova, Texas Tech University

• Isabel Billings, Texas Tech University

• Abby Caraway, Texas Tech University

• Nathan Hoggatt, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

• Ga-yeon Kim, Texas Tech University

• Aastha Mehta, Texas Tech University

• David Vizcaino, Texas Tech University