The Role Of Challenge In Students’ Engagement And .
The Role of Challenge in Students’Engagement and Competence inHigh School Science Classrooms:Hispanic and non-Hispanic WhitesComparedby Jennifer A. Schmidt, Hayal Z. Kackar-Cam, Anna D. Strati, Lee ShumowNorthern Illinois UniversityAuthor Note : This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation underGrant No: HRD-0827526. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authorsand do not reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jennifer A. Schmidt, Department of Leadership, Educational Psychologyand Foundations, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115.E-mail: jaschmidt@niu.eduAbstractThis study explores the associations of ethnicity and perceived challenge with high-schoolstudents’ academic engagement and perceivedcompetence in science. Data were collectedthrough a variant of the Experience SamplingMethod in which participants reported on theirlevels of engagement, perceived competence,and challenge while in science class, in responseto signals from a vibrating pager. Hispanic andnon-Hispanic White students reported similarlevels of engagement in science, though nonHispanic Whites reported higher levels ofconfidence. Results suggest that Hispanic andThe purpose of this study is twofold: 1) to compare theengagement and perceived competence of Hispanic andnon-Hispanic White students in high school science classes,and 2) to explore how ethnicity and perceived challengemay interact to contribute to students’ daily academicengagement and perceived competence in science classes.20NCSSS Journal 2015non-Hispanic White students respond differently to features of the learning environment.For example, while challenge was negativelyassociated with engagement in general, highlychallenging science instruction had a less negative impact on Hispanic students’ engagement,and a positive impact on their perceptions ofcompetence relative to non-Hispanic Whitestudents. Findings highlight the importance ofstudying students’ perceptions of their classroom learning experiences for understandingethnicity gaps in STEM areas.The ethnicity gap in academic achievement betweenHispanics and non-Hispanic Whites is particularly widein fields involving science, technology, engineering, andmathematics (STEM). Hispanics have lower achievement inSTEM courses, and as adults are severely underrepresentedin STEM fields compared to non-Hispanic Whites
(Taningco Matthew, & Pachon, 2008). Students of differentethnicities may respond to the same classroom learningenvironments differently. Certain features of the learningenvironment may be more engaging or enjoyable for onegroup vs. the other, or because of cultural differences, maybe viewed as more or less important for one’s future. Therecould also be ethnic differences in students’ perceptionsof competence for science that may help explain observedethnicity gaps in STEM areas. Certain features of sciencelearning environments may have differential impact onstudents of different ethnicities. Yair (2000) found thatHispanic students responded more positively than theirnon-Hispanic White counterparts to some features oflearning environments.Drawing upon the empirical and theoretical contributionsof Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (emergent motivation theory(EMT), 1990) this study focused on the role that academicchallenge plays in influencing students’ engagementand perceived competence in science learning contexts.Specifically, we examine whether Hispanic and nonHispanic White students differ from one another in termsof the relationship between challenge, engagement, andperceived competence. According to Csikszentmihalyi,challenge can be highly motivating, inviting deeperengagement in a task. As students take on appropriatelychallenging tasks, they experience a positive affective state,which leads them to engage more deeply and seek outsimilar challenges in the future. The relationship betweenchallenge and engagement has been supported empirically:Generally speaking, as students perceive greater challengein their learning activities, they tend to report greaterlevels of concentration and interest (Shernoff & Schmidt,2008; Shernoff, Csikszentmihalyi, Schneider, & Shernoff,2003). This type of engagement in challenge has also beenshown to be related to longer-term persistence in academicpursuits (Shernoff & Hoogstra, 2001). In this paper wewill examine the relationship between challenge andengagement in science among high school students.A natural consequence of engagement with challengingacademic tasks is that through this experience, students’skills become enhanced. Successful interaction withchallenge then, is presumed to deepen student engagementand build up a student’s competence and confidence(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). While there are empirical studiesshowing the positive relationship between engagementand “objective” measures of competence such as grades(Alexander, Entwisle & Horsey, 1997; Marks, 2000; Voelkl,1997), what may be more important, from a motivationalperspective, is that students perceive themselves ascompetent. The perception of competence is a theme thatruns through many of the most widely researched andaccepted theories of human motivation (Bandura, 1989;Deci & Ryan, 1991; Eccles, 1983; Wigfield & Eccles,2000). For example, Self Determination Theory (SDT,Deci & Ryan, 1991) posits that humans have a fundamentalneed to feel competent, and that this need directs much ofhuman behavior. Feeling competent is motivating: whenstudents believe they have the skill to accomplish a task,they are more likely to take on the task, will be morepersistent in the face of obstacles, will be more likely todiscard unproductive strategies, and will ultimately bemore successful (Bandura, 1989; Eccles & Wigfield, 1983).An important task for educators then, is to help studentsfeel competent. According to Bandura (1989), challengeplays a very important role in building up students’competence and confidence: success in very low-challengeactivities does little to make one feel more competent: themore meaningful (and motivating) successes are those inwhich one has had to overcome some moderate degree ofchallenge. Thus it is important to consider the relationshipbetween challenge and perceptions of competence.There may be individual differences both in students’overall levels of engagement and perceived competence,and in the way that challenge is related to engagementand competence. For example, Shumow and Schmidt(2014) documented gender differences in both engagementand perceived competence in science. Further, theydemonstrated that male and female students tended to reactdifferently to challenge in science: While challenge resultedin increased engagement for boys, it resulted in decreasedengagement for girls. These individual differences instudents’ subjective experience in science are consistentwith the long standing observed gender gaps in STEMpursuits in post secondary education and beyond. Giventhe ethnicity gaps that currently exist in STEM educationand careers, it may be fruitful to examine the experience ofHispanic and non-Hispanic White students in high schoolscience to determine whether there is variation by ethnicityin students’ engagement and perceived competence inscience, and to determine whether students of differentethnicities respond differently to the experience ofchallenge in science. This type of exploration may providesome small insights into existing gaps in our postsecondaryinstitutions and workplaces. Given the importance ofresponse to challenge, engagement, perceived competencefor academic success, understanding these individualRole of Ethnicity and Challenge in Science Class21
differences is critical to providing optimal learningenvironments for all students.MethodSetting and ParticipantsData were collected in 12 science classrooms – threeclassrooms each in regular-track general science, biology,chemistry, and physics. All classrooms studied were in asingle comprehensive high school serving students froma diverse community located on the fringe of a largemetropolitan area. The school serves 9th - 12th graders,with an enrollment of approximately 3,300. Accordingto school records, 43% of students in the sample wereeligible to receive free or reduced lunch. Hispanic studentsand students identifying as non-Hispanic White eachcomprised approximately 40 percent of the student body.While the sample for the larger study (Schmidt & Smith,2008) included 244 students, the present study focuses onthe 180 students characterized as Hispanic (n 85) or nonHispanic White (n 95). The overall student participationrate across all classrooms was 91%, with half of theclassrooms studied having 100% participation. Table 1displays the demographic characteristics of the subsampleexamined in this study.Procedures, Instruments, and MeasuresWithin each of the 12 classrooms, data were collected overtwo time periods (“waves”) during the academic year -once in fall and once in spring. For both waves, methodsof data collection included traditional surveys, experiencesampling techniques, and other methods not employedin the current analysis. Data from different sections ofthe same course were collected during the same timeperiod so that the data collected from all 3 sections wouldrepresent the same point in the science curriculum, thusenabling analysis of the effects of particular content unitswhile controlling for the effects of the instructor. Studyingtwo different content units from each course reduces thepossibility that findings regarding a particular course wereidiosyncratic and entirely attributable to the specific unitexamined.During each wave of data collection, students’ subjectiveexperience in each science classroom was measuredrepeatedly over a period of 5 consecutive school daysusing a variant of the Experience Sampling Method(ESM; Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1987). Participants22NCSSS Journal 2015Table 1. Sample Demographic Characteristicswore a vibrating pager which was used to signal themunobtrusively using a remote transmitter at 2 randomlyselected time points during each day’s science class. Tominimize the disruption to class flow and maximizethe variety of classroom activities recorded, the pool ofparticipants in each classroom was divided in half, witheach half following a different signal schedule. In responseto each signal, students completed an Experience SamplingForm (ESF) in which they briefly recorded, among otherthings, their perceived levels of engagement, competence,and challenge. The ESF took approximately 1-2 minutes tocomplete. Each student provided up to 20 such responses,with the total number of responses being 3,229.MeasuresEngagement, perceived competence, and perceivedchallenge were measured by Likert-scale items (0 notat all, 3 very much) on the ESM self-report form.Engagement (outcome) was measured by taking the meanof three items where participants indicated how much theyenjoyed, were interested in, and wished to be doing presentactivity (α .76, M 1.27, SD .51). Perceived competence
(outcome) was measured by taking the mean of two itemswhere participants reported on how skilled and successfulthey felt in the activity (α .85, M 1.67, SD .51). Perceivedchallenge (level-1, momentary predictor) was measured bya single item where participants rated the challenge of theactivity (single item, M .89, SD .47).Participants reported on their ethnicity (level-2, personlevel predictor) in a survey which was recoded such that0 non-Hispanic White, and 1 Hispanic. Prior scienceachievement (level-2, control variable) was comprised ofparticipants’ self reported grades in science prior to currentyear (M 2.74, SD .90, range 0-4).ResultsSimple Ethnicity ComparisonsSimple t-test comparisons revealed that the Hispanic andnon-Hispanic White students in this study do not differfrom one another in their overall levels of engagement,competence, perceptions of challenge, or prior scienceachievement. They do, however, differ in the degreeto which they aspire to science-related jobs such thatHispanics are far less likely to aspire to science-relatedcareers (χ2 7.8. p .05).Figure 1. Engagement, Competence, and Challenge in Science by EthnicityFigure 2. Prior Science Grades by EthnicityRole of Ethnicity and Challenge in Science Class23
The Effect of Perceived Challenge onStudents’ Engagement and PerceivedCompetence, and the Role of Ethnicityon these EffectsDue to the nested nature of the data, withESM reports (by students during ical Linear Modeling (HLM,Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) was used to testthe effect of perceived challenge on students’engagement and perceived competence, andthe role of ethnicity on these effects, controllingfor students’ prior science achievement.Engagement. Hispanic students did notdiffer from non-Hispanic Whites in mean Table 2. Two-Level HLM Models testing the Effect of Perceived Challengeon Students’ Engagement and Perceived Competence, and the Role ofengagement levels (γ01 .11, ns). HigherEthnicity on these Effectslevels of challenge were associated with lowerengagement (γ10 -.25, p .001) for nonContrary to what is predicted by EMT (Csikszentmihalyi,Hispanic White students. The negative effect of challenge1990), challenge was negatively associated with engagementon engagement was less pronounced (albeit marginally) forin this sample. A possible explanation for this finding mightHispanics than non-Hispanic Whites (γ11 .08, p .052).be found in the central principles of EMT--that studentsIn other words, Hispanic students’ levels of engagementneed to possess enough skill to successfully overcomewere affected less negatively when they perceived sciencethe challenging tasks so that they feel more engaged ininstruction to be highly challenging). The negative effectthese tasks. In other words, students in this sample mayof challenge on engagement was also moderated bynot have felt skilled enough in the face of challengingprior achievement (γ12 .03, p .05) such that studentsscience tasks which may have frustrated them and in turnwith higher prior achievement did not evidence the samemay have resulted in decreased levels of engagement. Thenegative relationship between challenge and engagement.finding that prior achievement ameliorated the negativerelationship between challenge and engagement supportsPerceived competence. Hispanic students reportedthis explanation. It is important, then, for teachers tolower levels of competence compared to non-Hispanicprovide students with challenging tasks appropriate toWhites (γ01 -.23, p .05). When science instruction wasstudents’ skill levels.perceived to be more challenging, competence of nonHispanic White students remained constant (γ10 -.14, ns).Hispanics showed an increase in competence when scienceinstruction was challenging, relative to non-HispanicWhites (γ11 .13, p .05). (i.e., Hispanic students’ ratingsof competence increased when they perceived scienceinstruction to be highly challenging. In comparison, nonHispanic White students’ competence ratings were notaffected by challenging science instruction).Discussion and ConclusionsFindings from this study provide important insights intothe role that ethnicity and challenge play in high schoolstudents’ feelings of engagement and competence inscience.24NCSSS Journal 2015A second possible explanation for these findings has todo with the degree to which students value the tasks theyare asked to do in science. According to Csikszentmihalyi(1990), in order for challenge to be motivating, the actorhas to perceive some value in the challenging task. Inrecent research, Shumow & Schmidt (2014) found thatstudents in this sample generally saw little value in theirscience activities. It could be that many students in thepresent sample did not respond to challenge by engaging,because they did not perceive the challenging activity asworthwhile.Consistent with other research (Uekawa, Borman & Lee2007; Yair, 2000), our findings suggest that Hispanicand non-Hispanic White students respond differently to
features of the learning environment. While Hispanic andnon-Hispanic White students reported similar levels ofengagement, our results showed that Hispanic students’levels of engagement were affected slightly less negativelywhen they perceived science instruction to be highlychallenging, relative to non-Hispanic White students.Following the same principles of EMT just mentioned,Hispanic students may have viewed their challengingscience tasks as more valuable than non-Hispanic Whitestudents did, which might explain the less pronouncednegative impact of challenge on engagement.Further ethnic differences were observed in students’ratings of competence both in general and in relation tochallenge. In general, Hispanic students reported feelingless competent in science class than non-Hispanic Whitestudents. When science instruction was perceived to bemore challenging, however, Hispanic students reportedincreased levels of competence, as opposed to nonHispanic White students whose competence remainedconstant. This suggests that challenging science instructioncan be especially beneficial for Hispanic students’ feelingsof competence in science class.Given the reality of the ethnicity gap in science achievementand STEM occupations, our findings are very promisingbecause, as reviewed earlier, several theories of humanmotivation suggest that higher perceptions of competencein any given task is a critical factor in continued successand persistence in that task. Thus, providing challengingtasks may be one way to improve Hispanic students’perceptions of competence in science class, which maythen lead them to seek more careers in STEM fields in thefuture. Alarmingly, however, we observed that the teacherstended to assiduously reduce the challenges in the scienceclasses with high numbers of Hispanic students, believingthat the students were overwhelmed by science (Shumow& Schmidt, 2014). It is important for science teachers tounderstand the counterproductive nature of that tendency.Together, these findings highlight the importanceof studying students’ perceptions of their classroomlearning experiences for understanding ethnicity gaps inSTEM areas. Future studies aimed at understanding thesocialization practices that contribute to the Hispanicstudents responses to challenge are warranted and coulduncover pathways to increase the number of Hispanicstudents seeking to study and pursue STEM careers.ReferencesAlexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Horsey, C. S.(1997). From first grade forward: Early foundationsof high school dropout. Sociology of Education, 70, 87107.Marks, H. M. (2000). Student engagement in instructional activity: Patterns in the elementary, middle andhigh school years. American Educational Research Journal, 37, 153-184.Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitivetheory. American Psychologist, 44(9), 1175-1184.Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data AnalysisMethods, Second Edition. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Perennial.Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (1987). Validity andreliability of the experience sampling method. Journalof Nervous and Mental Disease 175, 526-536.Deci, E., & Ryan, R. (1991). A motivational approach toself: Integration in personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 1990: Perspectives on motivation, Vol. 38 (pp. 237-288). Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press.Eccles, J. S. (1983). Expectancies, values and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement andachievement motives (pp. 75-146). San Francisco: Freeman.Schmidt, J. A. & Smith, MC (2008). Looking insidehigh school science classrooms: Examining males andf
Role of Ethnicity and Challenge in Science Class 23 (outcome) was measured by taking the mean of two items where participants reported on how skilled and successful they felt in the activity (α .85, M 1.67, SD .51). Perceived challenge (level-1, momentary predictor) was measured by a single item where participants rated the challenge of the
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