How College Students Make Sense of STEM Teaching That Relates Learning to Their Lives

• In Event: Student Narratives Within STEM: Context, Learning, and Sense-Making

Abstract

This qualitative narrative inquiry examined how 11 college students made sense of teaching that draws on their prior knowledge and relating learning to their lives. I used interviews, documents, and surveys as my data sources, and used multiple narrative analytic approaches, to examine two instructors’ use of equity pedagogy in computer and information science, and natural sciences courses from four semesters at a Hispanic Serving Community College. Students initially experienced some cognitive dissonance, but came to make sense of this teaching approach in ways that encouraged persistence in STEM. Differences in sense-making by identities emerged.

Author

• Jillian Ives, University of Connecticut - Storrs