How do introductory field biology students feel? Journal reflections provide insight into student affect

Abstract

An understanding of both cognitive and affective domains of learning is critical to promoting undergraduate student success in biology. Field courses—which support student learning, observation, and experimentation in the outdoors—have been shown to be effective in supporting cognitive student outcomes. However, less is known about students' affective responses during field instruction. To better understand the affective domain in this course type, we asked students enrolled in a campus‐based introductory field biology course to engage in weekly reflective journaling over the course of a semester. We employed inductive and deductive coding of over 700 field journal reflections using the Model of the Affective Domain for the Geosciences as a conceptual basis. Informed by our results, we present a theoretically‐driven, five‐part Framework of Student Affect in Field Biology and in‐depth and novel insights into what students feel, believe, and value as they participate in an undergraduate field course. Our framework and coding results can be used by field course instructors to understand how to better design experiences that leave students feeling confident in their abilities, interested to learn more about nature, and empowered to persist in the discipline.

Professional social connections are associated with student science identity in a research‐based field biology course

“…While students reached out to TAs and instructors for personal support on occasion, they mainly sought personal support from their research partners. Students who engage in field courses can gradually develop collaborative relationships with their classmates and build rapport by participating in shared experiences (Race et al, 2021; Treibergs et al, 2022). Therefore, it is possible that students built enough rapport to seek personal support from their research partners.…”

“…Further, participation in field courses can promote students' knowledge growth, spatial reasoning, and familiarity with the scientific process (Mason et al, 2018;Riggs et al, 2009). They also can support students' affective development (O'Connell et al, 2021(O'Connell et al, , 2022Shinbrot et al, 2022;Treibergs et al, 2022). For example, field courses can promote developments in students' motivation (Scott et al, 2019) and science self-efficacy (Beltran et al, 2020), and can further increase students' confidence to engage in fieldwork (Peacock et al, 2018).…”

Journal reflections shed light on challenges students face in an introductory field biology course

“…We collected student field journal reflections, which were also used to develop the Framework of Student Affect in Field Biology (Treibergs et al, 2022). Keeping a detailed field notebook is part of the culture and practice of field biology.…”

“…Field courses—which empower students to engage in disciplinary practices and learn skills and concepts while immersed in outdoor settings—are important components of natural scientific disciplines, including the life sciences (Fleischner et al, 2017; Zavaleta et al, 2020) and geosciences (Kirkby, 2014; Riggs et al, 2009). When purposefully designed, field courses can promote equity and inclusivity (Zavaleta et al, 2020) and can bolster outcomes linked to retention, such as positive affect (Treibergs et al, 2022), knowledge (Patrick, 2010), self‐efficacy, grades, and graduation rates (Beltran et al, 2020). Furthermore, fieldwork experiences in life science and geoscience have been shown to promote productive formal and informal social interactions between students and their instructors (Cotton, 2009; Posselt & Nuñez, 2022).…”

The Review of Fundamental Framework for Reflective Thinking and Practice in Science Education: Implications for Transformative Science Learning

“…Additionally, reflective thinking enables individuals to identify their personal strengths and weaknesses and to develop effective solutions to problems encountered ( Mamlok-Naaman & Eilks, 2012;Ho & Smith, 2021;Alt et al, 2022). Extensive research has demonstrated that reflective thinking is instrumental in enhancing students' task performance (Oliveira et al, 2021;Treibergs et al, 2022;Yang et al, 2022). However, previous studies on reflective thinking have been criticized for their limited scope, highlighting the need for further research to establish a fundamental framework for reflective thinking and practice in science education.…”