I am continuing with the JMBE Live YouTube playlist, and tonight I watched the recording for the session entitled “M-LoCUS: A Scalable Intervention Enhances Growth Mindset and Internal Locus of Control in Undergraduate Students in STEM” presented by Jeff Maloy. The session started with a Menti poll to gather information about the audience and their familiarity with educational research. Maloy did a Ph.D. in microbiology at UCLA and discovered he enjoyed teaching and learning about learning. Maloy did a postdoc at the UCLA Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences (CEILS) focusing on motivation and mindset, LGBTQ + Student Experiences, and Inclusive Pedagogy. Maloy is now an assistant professor of teaching. They shared tips for new education researchers. The first tip was to start with a theoretical framework. The examples shared were Expactancy-Value Theory published in JMBE by K. Cooper et al. in 2017. The second example was published in CBE-LSE by Henry et al. in 2019 and addressed the failure mindset coping model (subset). Maloy uses the social cognitive career theory: students have inputs including predispositions, gender, race/ethnicity, and disability. Students have background environmental influences and both their inputs and background influences affect their learning experiences. Self-efficacy and student outcome expectations are are affected by the learning experiences and lead to interest, performance goal orientation, mastery goal orientation, and performance. The second tip for new education researchers shared by Maloy was to collaborate and engage with students. I love this one, and Maloy has a great example with the work by Dhiraj Nallapothula. Dhiraj was a learning assistant in a class taught by Maloy and came to him with ideas. They noted fixed mindset (“personal attributes such as intelligence cannot be changed or developed”) and growth mindset (“personal attributes such as intelligence may be developed and changed incrementally over time with conscious effort”). Returning to social cognitive career theory, Maloy noted that growth mindset can impact self-efficacy. They then thought about internal and external loci of control, defining them as:
- External locus of control: People have little agency over life events.
- Internal locus of control: People have the ability to impact life events and control outcomes.
Maloy hypothesized that internal locus of control would impact outcome expectations. Maloy then stated that “growth mindset and internal locus of control are synergistic concepts.” He shared a table with locus of control (external and internal) on the y-axis and Mindset (fixed and growth) on the x-axis in a two-by-two table.
Maloy mentioned action research methodology is a way of taking an action to address a need in the classroom. The cycle for action research methodology is: identify, design and implement, collect data, analyze, and reflect/revise/repeat. Using this methodology, they developed the mindset and locus of control for undergraduates in sciences (M-LoCUS) with the goal of teaching students about the concept of growth/fixed mindset and locus of control.
Maloy’s third tip for new. education researchers is don’t reinvent the wheel. They used existing resources for teaching students about growth mindset. They complemented existing videos with resources they created. Maloy wanted to develop a “light touch intervention” that would be easier to implement by other instructors. The process starts with an initial reflection and is followed by information about growth mindset and (video) case studies. The third part of the intervention is to learn about locus of control with a similar format. The fourth part combines mindset and locus of control. The last part of the intervention is a reflection. The 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 and/or locus of control differ between URM versus non-URM students, first-generation versus non-FG students, or male versus female identifying subjects.
The fourth tip Maloy shared was to learn from experts. Maloy worked with the UCLA Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The M-LoCUS intervention did “shift students’ self-reported mindsets and LoC.” Maloy shared results in tables broken down by different groups or characteristics of participants.
Maloy shared a quick primer on multiple regression in which multiple variables impact an outcome. Maloy explained that in multiple regression analysis the beta term tells us how much impact that variable has on the output variable. The only significant predictor of a shift in mindset pre to post intervention was the student’s pre mindset. Maloy had a slide with several stacked bar graphs and the title “Students who started with more of a fixed mindset or external LoC reported shifts of greater magnitudes.” Maloy also noted that growth mindset and internal locus of control were associated with greater career motivation, self-efficacy, and academic self-confidence. In additional work the group has done, Maloy shared that post-course growth mindset is a significant predictor of course grades.
Maloy encouraged participants to read and collaborate with others to learn about education resources and frameworks. Maloy noted that a lot has been done with mindsets but not that much on locus of control. Maloy also encouraged sharing this information about mindsets and locus of control with senior students. I thought it was interesting and surprising that student self ratings matched the instrument for the most part. One attendee suggested using normalized gains to avoid ceiling effects. Toward the end, Maloy talked about “wise” or light touch interventions that are very specific. In the case of M-LoCUS, there are five contact points and each one takes about twenty minutes. Maloy explained that the initial rollout of the intervention was in the three-course series for introductory life sciences. They incentivized students with extra credit initially, and now the intervention is part of their reflections (for points). I am glad an attendee asked about meritocracy and Maloy explained that their locus of control and mindset interventions do address structural inequities and focus on “what can I control and do.” Maloy also spoke about wording and language used with students. This is something I am trying to be more conscious about and praise effort…
