Non-Cognitive Predictors of Student Success: A Predictive Validity Comparison Between Domestic and International Students Focusing on the future impacts of current scientific research may increase students’ self-efficacy in science. Non-Cognitive Predictors of Student Success: A Predictive Validity Comparison Between Domestic and International Students TEACHING & LEARNING ISSUE: MOTIVATION Student attitudes, particularly the motivation to learn, play a significant role in student achievement in science courses. 1,2 Positively influencing student motivation to learn science, thus, is a route to improving student outcomes in science courses. Studies based in Social Cognitive Theory suggest that the temporal focus of a situation—its relation to the past, present or future—can affect motivation 3, yet no investigations of temporal focus within science classrooms have been reported. RESEARCH QUESTION Does the temporal focus of a classroom discussion impact students’ motivation to learn science? Hypothesis: Focusing discussion problems on the future impacts of scientific research will increase student motivation to learn science. METHODS 50 high school students over 2 years self-sorted into 4 sections of a 50-minute discussion course during a voluntary enrichment program. Questions from the Science Motivation Questionnaire II 4, a previously validated measure of student motivation to learn science, assessed outcomes. KEY RESULTS • Statistically significant (p < .0005) increase in self-efficacy for individuals in the future- focused discussion sections. • Students prefer to learn about current scientific research. REFLECTION Quick one-time interventions are valuable and can yield statistically significant improvements to student outcomes. Further investigation of temporal focus within the science classroom is encouraged. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Motivation to learn science: “an internal state that arouses, directs, and sustains science- learning behavior.”4 SMQII Question Examples: Lecture Information: Students were introduced to historic examples of the impacts of research on society through machine learning as it relates to Netflix recommendations. The areas of scientific impact were then presented. This introduced students to the real-world consequences of scientific research and demonstrated a framework for evaluating the broader impacts of research. Insignificant Results: There were no significant changes measured for 4 factors of motivation (intrinsic motivation, career motivation, self- determination, and grade motivation). Students indicate that they prefer to learn about current scientific research PRESENTER: James Schwabacher The temporal focus of a discussion question may impact students’ motivation to learn science James C. Schwabacher @jschwabacher 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 -2 -1 0 1 2 Number of students Change in self-efficacy measure Intervention A Intervention B 0 4 8 12 16 20 1 2 3 4 5 Number of responses Self-efficacy measure Student responses to a measure of self-efficacy for pre- and post-interventions pre-A post-A pre-B post-B Pre-class survey Brief lecture Intervention A Intervention B Post-class survey Intervention A: Past-focused Intervention B: Future-focused 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Strongly Prefer Past Slightly Prefer Past No Preference Slightly Prefer Current Strongly Prefer Current Number of responses Intervention A Intervention B REFERENCES (1) Reardon, R. F. et al. Discovering the Determinants of Chemistry Course Perceptions in Undergraduate Students. J. Chem. Educ. 2010. (2) Smist, J. M. General Chemistry and Self-Efficacy. Natl. Meet. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993 . (3) Karniol, R.; Ross, M. THE MOTIVATIONAL IMPACT OF TEMPORAL FOCUS: Thinking About the Future and the Past. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 1996. (4) Glynn, S. M. et al. Science Motivation Questionnaire II: Validation with Science Majors and Nonscience Majors. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 2011. Wilcoxon signed-rank test between pre- and post-intervention B scores for individuals i