I’ve been thinking about Dr. Jeff Maloy’s JMBE Live presentation a couple of weeks ago. I watched part of it live, then watched the recording a week ago, and returned to it today after sharing the link and talking about it this week. Maloy is teaching faculty at UCLA with extensive experience in education research. The presentation itself used really captivating slides, graphics, and diagrams to depict the studies and Menti.com polls to engage the audience. Maloy did a Ph.D. at UCLA in microbiology and discovered the joy of teaching. The postdoc Maloy completed was at CEILS at UCLA focusing on motivation and mindset, inclusive pedagogy, and LGBTQ+ student experience. Maloy framed the talk in terms of tips for new education researchers that I reproduce below:
- Start with a theoretical framework such as Failure Mindset Coping Model or Expectancy-Value Theory.
- Collaborate and engage with students.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. Direct your energy to filling gaps.
- Learn from experts… assessment experts in teaching centers, for example.
Maloy uses Social Cognitive Career Theory to frame the research. This theory aims to understand academic success/development and persistence in terms of the interplay between self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and interests influenced by environmental supports. Maloy graphically depicted the Social Cognitive Career Theory with a diagram connecting person inputs and background environmental influences to learning experiences connected to self-efficacy and outcome expectations. These lead to interest, performance goal orientation, mastery goal orientation, challenge avoiding and engaging actions and performance. Maloy described how they work with students by helping them ask important questions about their learning experience. Maloy introduced fixed and growth mindsets. Growth mindset could have a contribution to self-efficacy in the Social Cognitive Career Theory. To examine this, Maloy and students examined internal vs. external loci of control. Locus of control can impact a student’s outcome expectations. Then Maloy reviewed example student quotes placing them in different quadrants with fixed and growth mindset on the x-axis and external and internal locus of control on the y-axis.I had never considered the relationship between mindset and locus of control. As Maloy puts it, these are synergistic concepts. Action Research Methodology was described by Maloy as the methodology or approach to iterate and develop interventions. With this, Maloy created an intervention entitled Mindset and Locus of Control for Undergraduates in Science (M-LoCUS) to help students define, distinguish, explain, reflect, advise, and adopt growth mindset and internal locus of control. Maloy used existing growth mindset videos and developed a light touch five intervention point online series. Maloy recorded student case studies for observers/participants to offer advice. Students learn about mindset and locus of control, how combining them can be used for positive outcomes, and how to change their thought patterns upon reflection. Maloy’s research questions were: did students demonstrate changes in mindset and/or locus of control over the course of the intervention and did changes in mindset differ among different demographics. With assessment experts helping support this study, Maloy was able to determine shifts in student self-reported mindsets and locus of control from before to after the intervention. I appreciate the primer of multiple regression. Interestingly, the only significant predictor of shift in mindset was the starting point of the students in terms of mindset and locus of control. Post course growth mindset was also found to be a significant predictor of course grade. I enjoy learning about study design, interventions, and educational research data analysis. Maloy’s presentation not only shared intriguing data; the talk encouraged those of us starting with educational research to try different designs and interventions. Importantly, I love how Maloy works with students! The question and answer session had several interesting questions. One that intrigued me was that self rating and using a survey instrument to measure mindset or locus of control were similar in reliability. One question asked whether the data could be “normalized” by starting mindset or locus of control to prevent ceiling effects, and Maloy acknowledged thus would be useful. The interventions were all online and 15-20 min long per session. Thus study was done initially throughout the intro life science series of three courses at UCLA. Maloy mentioned that students were initially offered extra credit for participating and now small amount of points. One attendee mentioned the Underrepresentation Curriculum (underrep.com) to bust the myth of meritocracy. I’m glad someone asked this and was glad to hear that Maloy’s intervention addresses that systemic racism and inequality — circumstances that are out of their control. Maloy explained that the focus of the intervention is on what can I control to move forward. I now think addressing meritocracy and systemic inequalities is critical for these interventions. Maloy also commented on using language and praising effort not the outcome, for example. I have been trying to be more careful with wording and feedback. At the end, Maloy mentioned they collected qualitative data as part of student interviews and focus groups. More to come as part of Maloy’s work and in line with action research methodologies!
