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."

Productive Persistence: Tenacity + Good Strategies

Productive Persistence: Scope of Work Practical Theory Practical Measures Improvable Activities / Materials Centered on a problem of practice Co-developed with practitioners and students Tested with academic experts Brief and practical Face-valid for practitioners Recognizable to researchers Designed to inform improvements Initial set of activities Systems for collecting data Strategies for improvement Tests that inform practice and academic theories

Creating a Practical Theory and Measures of Productive Persistence Math Faculty: Surveys of math faculty Statway summer institute Reviews of the literature, emphasizing articles authored by: Bandura; Beilock; Cohen; Duckworth; Elliot; Hulleman; Dweck; MDRC; Oyserman; Vansteenkiste; Walton; Zimmerman Interviews with students: Students attending Foothill college. Arleen Arnsparger, from the CCCSE. Tests of the model: Uri Treisman Arleen Arnsparger, Lawrence Morales, Jane Muhich Rose Asera Mary Ann Firpo Coaching: Lindsay Martin, IHI 

Development Procedure 90-day cycle to create a list of all potential drivers to measure (result: 182 drivers) Reduce, using theory and interviews (result: 10 secondary drivers) Collect every measure of each of the drivers (result: 828 survey items) Reduce and re-write, using best-practices survey design (result: 26 items, median response 3 min) Pilot: cognitive pretests and with respondents

Primary Drivers of the Problem Secondary Drivers (things that keep us from meeting the aim) Secondary Drivers Losing students at transitions Need a shortened, pre-enrolled, year-long mathematics pathway [Not measured] Course content is not seen as interesting / relevant Course material not seen as interesting or useful Students lack long-term goals Students lack intrinsic & freely-chosen reasons for learning Students need skills and habits required for college success Students lack “the basics” of how to be a college student Successfully Completing Developmental Math Measured in Extended Background Survey Students have math anxiety Students don’t see themselves as math learners 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 Students have weak ties to peers, faculty and course of study Few social ties to faculty Few social ties to peers Some faculty lack skills/beliefs to promote engagement Faculty’s mindsets about student’s potential [Not measured] Faculty’s beliefs about their role Faculty’s engagement skills

Primary Drivers of the Problem Secondary Drivers (things that keep us from meeting the aim) Secondary Drivers Survey Pilot Independent Effects Course content is not seen as interesting / relevant -.32 SD Course material not seen as interesting or useful Students lack long-term goals -.64 SD Students lack intrinsic & freely-chosen reasons for learning n.s. Students need skills and habits required for college success Students lack “the basics” of how to be a college student n.s. Math Performance Students have math anxiety -.65 SD Students don’t see themselves as math learners 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 35% of the variance accounted for Students have weak ties to peers, faculty and course of study n.s. Few social ties to faculty Few social ties to peers n.s.

Primary Drivers of the Problem Secondary Drivers (things that keep us from meeting the aim) Secondary Drivers Survey Pilot Independent Effects Course content is not seen as interesting / relevant -15% Course material not seen as interesting or useful -7% Students lack long-term goals Students lack intrinsic & freely-chosen reasons for learning -5% Students need skills and habits required for college success Students lack “the basics” of how to be a college student -23% Math Grades Students have math anxiety -15% Students don’t see themselves as math learners Students do not react well to academic setbacks (e.g., “I’m just not good at math; teacher is biased; I got lucky”) -5% -10% Students are aware of negative academic stereotypes 41% of the variance accounted for Students have weak ties to peers, faculty and course of study n.s. Few social ties to faculty Few social ties to peers n.s.

“Starting Strong:” A Focus on the First 3-4 Weeks

“Starter Package” Elements Students’ Mindsets: Growth Mindset + Values Affirmation writing activity Setting the stage for productive struggle Why study statistics?/Why study mathematics? Social Connections Contract activity Group work (already completed) “College knowledge” Self-regulated learning Student mindsets undermine motivation Few or no connections Expectations Students’ limited “college knowledge”

Student mindsets undermine motivation Miyake et al., Science, College Physics *

Mindsets: Co-Development and Pilot Student mindsets undermine motivation Mindsets: Co-Development and Pilot

Student mindsets undermine motivation

Student mindsets undermine motivation Valencia College, Beginning Algebra *

Student mindsets undermine motivation Interviews With Treatment Group: “What did you learn from the exercise?” “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!”

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