Research
Current Projects
LEAP (Launch into Education About Pharmacology) & Science Career Pathways
Drs. Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia (of Michigan State University), Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom (of Duke University), and Tony Perez (of Old Dominion University) are co-investigators of an on-going NIH-funded longitudinal study examining how students' undergraduate experiences influence their beliefs and feelings about science. Students take yearly surveys from freshman year to two years after they graduate from college and again 5-7 years after graduation. A subset of individuals also participate in interviews about their experiences in science. A goal of this research is to better understand how people make decisions about whether and how to participate in science. In addition to studying students’ broader experiences, this study also investigates whether students’ engagement in a 2-week summer science course (i.e., LEAP Program) influences their engagement in science. We focus on a variety of psychological processes related to persistence in science including identity (domain, ethnic, and gender), stereotype threat, feelings of belonging, expectancies and values, and achievement goal orientations.
Persistence in Undergraduate Engineering
Supporting Excellent Engineers
In a series of ongoing NSF-supported projects, we collaborate with a team in the College of Engineering to study the effects of motivation, curriculum, and campus support programs on students’ decisions to stay in or depart from their engineering majors. We follow participants longitudinally throughout college with a series of surveys, focus groups, and interviews to understand the psychological processes (e.g., identity, stereotype threat, feelings of belonging, expectancies and values, attributions, achievement goal orientations) associated with learning, engagement, and persistence in engineering as well as the role of institutional supports in these processes. We are particularly interested in studying these processes among students traditionally underrepresented in engineering. We also partner with the College of Engineering on the Supporting Excellent Engineers (SEE) Scholars program, which is funded by NSF to provide financial support, research-based professional development, and social cohort programming to support highly talented undergraduates in engineering.
Motivation – Planning Lessons to Activate eNgagement in Science (M-PLANS)
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the M-PLANS (Motivation - Planning Lessons to Activate eNgagement in Science) collaborative project uses co-design as a strategy to develop a professional learning approach with resources to assist middle school teachers in supporting students’ motivation and engagement in the context of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS instruction). The project brings together motivation experts, science education researchers, and middle school science teachers who are working together to iteratively design and study a sustainable professional learning (PL) model that builds teachers’ capacity to support student motivation and engagement in science. The project aims to co-develop a professional learning experience that enhances teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge about a variety of motivational competencies that are implicit in the NRC Framework and NGSS and to equip them to support student motivation using five theoretically- and empirically-based Motivational Design Principles.
Previous Projects
Flipped Classroom
In collaboration with Central Michigan University, this study examines the motivational effects of flipping a college anatomy class. In a flipped classroom, students watch pre-recorded lectures at home instead of completing traditional homework, and then the professor uses class time to lead them in collaborative learning activities. We are interested in informing practice by providing insights about how this increasingly popular instructional technique affects student learning. Specifically, we are examining students’ goal-setting behaviors, self-regulatory strategies, motivation and emotion, engagement, and achievement.