Students’ Meaningful Learning Experiences and Identity Formation in the UIC STEM Initiative CoLab Program

This dissertation discusses students’ meaningful learning experiences and science identity formation in a workshop-based undergraduate research experience known as the UIC STEM Initiative CoLab Program. The theoretical frameworks of meaningful learning and situated cognition and the methodological framework of phenomenography are used to describe how students understand the research process, the process of doing science, and the poster creation and presentation process. In a subsequent study, students’ understanding of the research process and the poster creation and presentation process is connected to the Science and Engineering Practices and additional science practices deemed as important to the students’ experiences: creativity, failure, and contributing to future work. Students’ understanding of the process of doing science is elaborated in another study with themes of How Students Viewed the Structure and Methods of Conducting Science and How Students Viewed the Psychosocial Elements of Science detailed in a nature of science (NOS) outcome space using VNOS-C survey and interview data. Phenomenography is used to create an outcome space for students’ science identity with themes of How Students Viewed Their Integration into the Science Community and How Students Viewed Their Scientific Skill Progression. Students’ NOS conceptions are related to their science identity. In a longitudinal study utilizing a control group, CoLab students’ sense of belonging, science identity, and nature of science conceptions are detailed in the summer of 2023, fall 2023, and spring 2024 and compared to those outcomes for students taking a traditional chemistry lab course in fall 2023 and spring 2024. CoLab students displayed a greater sense of belonging to the science community during the fall, but traditional chemistry students and CoLab students showed similar levels of belonging in the spring. Despite similar levels of self-recognition and competence, CoLab students performed their scientific knowledge in more authentic environments and received more recognition from others as being science people. Greater numbers of CoLab students also participated in research. CoLab students displayed a statistically significant difference in NOS views in the fall for the survey compared to traditional chemistry lab students and a statistically significant difference in NOS views in the spring for their interview responses.