Productive Persistence
Motivating and Engaging All Students
David Scott Yeager
In collaboration with:
Jane Muhich, Nicole Gray, Lawrence Morales, and Roberta
Brown
Fixed Mindset: “Being a 'math person' or not is
something about you that you really can't change. Some
people are good at math and other people aren't."
100%
80%
60%
40%
87%
20%
10%
0%
Agree
Disagree
2
Productive Persistence:
Tenacity + Good Strategies
3
Productive Persistence:
Scope of Work
Practical
Theory
• Centered on a
problem of practice
• Co-developed with
practitioners and
students
• Tested with academic
experts
Practical
Measures
• Brief and practical
• Face-valid for
practitioners
• Recognizable to
researchers
• Designed to inform
improvements
Improvable
Activities /
Materials
• Initial set of activities
• Systems for collecting
data
• Strategies for
improvement
• Tests that inform practice
and academic theories
4
Creating a Practical Theory and Measures of
Productive Persistence
• Math Faculty:
• Interviews with students:
– Students attending Foothill college.
– Arleen Arnsparger, from the
CCCSE.
– Surveys of math faculty
– Statway summer institute
• Reviews of the literature,
emphasizing articles authored
by:
•
Tests of the model:
–
–
–
–
–
–
– Bandura; Beilock; Cohen;
Duckworth; Elliot; Hulleman;
Dweck; MDRC; Oyserman;
Vansteenkiste; Walton;
Zimmerman
•
Uri Treisman
Arleen Arnsparger,
Lawrence Morales,
Jane Muhich
Rose Asera
Mary Ann Firpo
Coaching:
– Lindsay Martin, IHI
Development Procedure
1. 90-day cycle to create a list of all potential drivers to
measure
(result: 182 drivers)
2. Reduce, using theory and interviews
(result: 10 secondary drivers)
3. Collect every measure of each of the drivers
(result: 828 survey items)
4. Reduce and re-write, using best-practices survey design
(result: 26 items, median response 3 min)
5. Pilot: cognitive pretests and with respondents
Primary Drivers of the Problem
(things that keep us from meeting the aim)
Losing students
at transitions
Course material
not seen as
interesting or
useful
Successfully
Completing
Developmental
Math
Students need
skills and habits
required for
college success
Students don’t
see themselves
as math
learners
Students have
weak ties to
peers, faculty
and course of
study
Some faculty
lack
skills/beliefs to
promote
engagement
Secondary Drivers
Need a shortened, pre-enrolled,
year-long mathematics pathway
[Not measured]
Course content is not seen as
interesting / relevant
Students lack long-term goals
Students lack intrinsic & freelychosen reasons for learning
Students lack “the basics” of
how to be a college student
Students have math anxiety
Students do not react well to
academic setbacks
(e.g., “I’m just not good at math;
teacher is biased; I got lucky”)
Measured in
Extended
Background
Survey
Students are aware of negative
academic stereotypes
Few social ties to faculty
Few social ties to peers
Faculty’s mindsets about
student’s potential
Faculty’s beliefs about their role
Faculty’s engagement skills
[Not measured]
7
Survey Pilot
Primary Drivers of the Problem
(things that keep us from meeting the aim)
Secondary Drivers
Independent Effects
Course material
not seen as
interesting or
useful
Students need
skills and habits
required for
college success
Math
Performance
35% of the
variance
accounted for
Students don’t
see themselves
as math
learners
Students have
weak ties to
peers, faculty
and course of
study
Course content is not seen as
interesting / relevant
-.32 SD
Students lack long-term goals
-.64 SD
Students lack intrinsic & freelychosen reasons for learning
n.s.
Students lack “the basics” of
how to be a college student
n.s.
Students have math anxiety
-.65 SD
Students do not react well to
academic setbacks
(e.g., “I’m just not good at math;
teacher is biased; I got lucky”)
-1.16 SD
Students are aware of negative
academic stereotypes
-.68 SD
Few social ties to faculty
n.s.
Few social ties to peers
n.s.
Survey Pilot
Primary Drivers of the Problem
(things that keep us from meeting the aim)
Secondary Drivers
Independent Effects
Course material
not seen as
interesting or
useful
Students need
skills and habits
required for
college success
Math
Grades
41% of the
variance
accounted for
Students don’t
see themselves
as math
learners
Students have
weak ties to
peers, faculty
and course of
study
Course content is not seen as
interesting / relevant
-15%
Students lack long-term goals
-7%
Students lack intrinsic & freelychosen reasons for learning
-5%
Students lack “the basics” of
how to be a college student
-23%
Students have math anxiety
Students do not react well to
academic setbacks
(e.g., “I’m just not good at math;
teacher is biased; I got lucky”)
Students are aware of negative
academic stereotypes
Few social ties to faculty
Few social ties to peers
-15%
-5%
-10%
n.s.
n.s.
“Starting Strong:”
A Focus on the First 3-4 Weeks
10
“Starter Package” Elements
• Students’
Mindsets:
Student
mindsets undermine motivation
– Growth Mindset + Values Affirmation writing activity
– Setting the stage for productive struggle
– Why study statistics?/Why study mathematics?
FewConnections
or no connections
• Social
Expectations
– Contract activity
– Group work (already completed)
• “College
knowledge”
Students’
limited “college knowledge”
– Self-regulated learning
11
Miyake et al., Science, College Physics
Student mindsets
undermine
motivation
*
12
Student mindsets
undermine
motivation
Mindsets: Co-Development and Pilot
13
Student mindsets
undermine
motivation
14
Valencia College, Beginning Algebra
Student mindsets
undermine
motivation
*
15
Interviews With Treatment Group:
“What did you learn from the exercise?”
Student mindsets
undermine
motivation
• “As soon as I leave class, I go to the lab. When I leave the
lab I go home and do more work. Even in the car, I am
studying. Just doing work, doing work, doing work. All day
long I am studying … and that was helping me fail my tests.
After I read that article it clicked for me. I changed my
study habits. Instead of just doing work throughout all my
other activities, I started studying for shorter periods of
time. And actually studying, not just working the same
problems over again. I tried that for the test and I did so
much better!”
16
Improvement Plan
• Improvement of existing starter package
elements
– Faculty 2-minute surveys
– Student 2-minute surveys
– MyStatway behaviors
• Development of additional elements
– Piloting this fall in QW colleges and other colleges
• Alpha Labs: Research into new ideas
– Student surveys
– MyStatway student performance
17