Abstract
When students feel successful, they tend to be more confident in their capabilities (i.e., higher self-efficacy), which is associated with improved performance, engagement, and self-regulation. Yet, the way in which learners interpret their experiences is less well-understood. Learners’ views of failure (i.e., failure mindset) are potential lenses through which early adolescent learners perceive and interpret efficacy-relevant information. The relationship between failure mindset and self-efficacy may be particularly important to consider in STEM-related domains like robotics where failure is common. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between young adolescents’ failure mindset and their robotics self-efficacy development. Using mixed methods, we considered how students’ reported failure mindset levels were related to what has made them more or less confident in robotics. We also considered the relationship between failure mindset and robotics self-efficacy. Overall, the findings suggest that early adolescent learners’ failure mindset is related to the efficacy-relevant information they pay attention to in robotics, and, in turn, is associated with their reported robotics self-efficacy. The details of these relationships varied between elementary and middle school students. As there is a social push to normalize failures in educational settings, findings from this study offer an important insight into how students may interpret those failures.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1038 |
| Journal | Education Sciences |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 by the authors.
Funding
This study was part of a collaborative project focused on summer informal learning experiences during a STEM camp designed to increase adolescents’ STEM literacy and knowledge about STEM careers (see []). The camp, which was partly funded by the National Science Foundation, took place at a public, land-grant university in the Southeastern United States. Camp enrollment required a fee, but scholarships and transportation were available to qualified campers to increase accessibility. Participants were 237 elementary school (49%; exiting Grades 4–5) and middle school (51%; exiting Grades 6–7) students (64% boys, 36% girls) attending one of two camp terms. Each camp term comprised five consecutive weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with an extended day available. Participants’ race was reported by both parents and campers, then cross-referenced. Campers in our sample were White (62%), Black (15%), Hispanic (9%), Asian (8%), and multiracial (6%). Campers whose racial group has been historically underrepresented in STEM (i.e., Black, Hispanic, or multiracial students) were identified as underrepresented racial minority (URM) campers and represented 30% of the sample. Funding for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation Grant No. 1348281 and 1247392. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Science Foundation (NSF) | 1247392, 1348281 |
Keywords
- STEM
- early adolescence
- elementary school
- failure mindset
- informal learning
- middle school
- robotics
- self-efficacy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science (miscellaneous)
- Education
- Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Public Administration
- Computer Science Applications