Confidence, Frustration, and Worry

The Role of Emotions in Student Learning & Research

Mike CourtneyIndiana University@liboutreach

Carrie DonovanFerris State University@carriedonovan

High Hopes + Few Moments = #LibraryLifeFocus on the Affective Domain

Value of Qualitative Data

Theoretical Guideposts

Practical Applications

Critical Theory + Information LiteracyLocal Campus Mission, Vision, Curriculum

Influence & Context

Inquiry Question

Methodology

Interview Protocol

Data Analysis

Library Ethnography

Intended / Unintended Findings

Library UseGetting HelpAssignment Structure

Confidence (True & False)Raw EmotionSelf Awareness

Our study shows the most influential emotions in students’ research experiences are:

Confidence Worry Frustration Anxiety

The Influence of Emotions in the Research Process

Assumption: If you make it easy to find library resources, students will use the

library

Contention:●Confidence comes from familiarity with sources and one-click

access

“it’s pretty easy with the library website, I guess. You just go through the resources and on the… library page, there is a site specifically laid out perfectly for us to choose the sources or the databases that we’re gonna use to search. It was so easy to find sources... We didn’t really have any problems whatsoever.

I don’t feel like I’ve really been properly trained, I guess, to go about researching.”

Assumption: If students know strategies and concepts for information

seeking/evaluation, they will succeed

Contention:●Students must be able to acknowledge and manage their

emotions

“We couldn’t find the precise information that we were looking for. And we’re still struggling with that… Soooo, we’re getting better! But it’s funny to watch our faces over time. We’re probably like, ‘Yeah, we’re still going,’ and then eventually we’re like, ‘Oh this is kinda weird,’ ‘We’ll be ok, we got this.’”

Assumption: Librarians’ teaching is improved through our expertise & library

collections

Contention:If we’re not empathetic, we’ve got nothing

“It’s been a little overwhelming…. it takes a while to find things.”

“I just worry about it with all my other classes, getting everything done on time.”

“I was kind of overwhelmed. And I remember we were like ‘where do we begin?’”

Holistic Approach

--acknowledges--

Affective & Cognitive

Bottlenecks to Learning

Information Literacy

as its ownDiscipline

Research | Iterative Process | Learning

Kuhlthau & Confidence

“The rough draft is due on Friday, and that’s actually not too hard. It’s the researching and understanding, really comprehending what this is trying to say. Like when you know an article is useful but you can’t figure it all out, that’s the mind-blowing part.

It’s like, it’s really…it makes you question how smart you are, and then you get discouraged. I’m not kidding, that’s exactly what happens.”

Making the Affective Actionable

Start with cognitive outcome

Align with emotional outcome

Design holistic learning experience

Adjust course assignments accordingly

Example

“This might be a little too analytical for my purposes. I don’t know that I would understand this one well enough to put it in my paper.”

Model

Selecting sources

--Identifying--Deconstructing--Reading

--Use of Known Tools--Collaboration--Space for Failure

Start with cognitive outcome

Align with emotional outcome

Design holistic learning experience

Adjust course assignments accordingly

Confidence(Lack of)

Application

Students work together to “decode an article” with a dictionary or wikipedia in order to break it down into understandable parts and to define new concepts. Instead of making the evaluative choice at the point of searching, students built their “decoding” into a process, which was not based on snap judgements, but rather through collaborative reading, learning, and understanding.

How it Plays Out: Timing, Space, & Context

Inspiration | Inquiry | Identity

If we don’t honor the importance of values and emotions, neither will our students.

Professional Guideposts

Assessment

Cognitive Domain Affective Domain

Library Impact

Institutional Context

Stakes = High

“Well…I would start from the top, like click on a few, and then if none of them matched then, a big ol’ X right here [draws], it’s like back to the drawing board because obviously you’re not putting in the right thing… Did I not check a few boxes? Or did I….am I not searching in the right place? Stuff that that. If the first few were not right, then it was just like, nope, go back. So you modify your search like a jillion times, just to finally find a source that you like.”

Thank you!Questions?

Mike CourtneyIndiana University@liboutreach

Carrie DonovanFerris State University@carriedonovan

Image creditsAdapted from “Emotions in the classroom” © 2014 PassageWorks Institute

http://passageworks.org/working-strong-emotions-classroom

Mike CourtneyIndiana University@liboutreach

Carrie DonovanFerris State University@carriedonovan