A4 Article in conference proceedings
Exploring students’ identity development from the perspective of study difficulties (2020)

Isomottonen, V., Hamalainen, V., Clark, J., & Lappalainen, V. (2020). Exploring students’ identity development from the perspective of study difficulties. In FIE 2020 : Proceedings of the 50th IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. IEEE. Conference proceedings : Frontiers in Education Conference. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9273923

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Isomottonen, Ville; Hamalainen, Ville; Clark, Jennifer; Lappalainen, Vesa

Parent publication: FIE 2020 : Proceedings of the 50th IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference

Conference:

Place and date of conference: Uppsala, Sweden, 21.-24.10.2020

ISBN: 978-1-7281-8962-8

eISBN: 9781728189611

Journal or series: Conference proceedings : Frontiers in Education Conference

ISSN: 1539-4565

eISSN: 2377-634X

Publication year: 2020

Publisher: IEEE

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9273923

Publication open access: Other way freely accessible online

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/73104

Web address where publication is available: https://www.fie2020.org/abstracts-and-papers/

Abstract

This work-in-progress paper in research category reports preliminary findings on how students taking introductory computing courses develop identity from the perspective of study difficulties. The motivation was that students identified lack of meaning and prospects (cf. identity) as a study difficulty in a previous qualitative study. The present study further explores this finding by issuing both an identity development and a self-efficacy scale to a larger first-year student cohort. The aim is to characterize the study cohort by the aspects included in the identity development scale, and thereby increase understandings of students’ challenges. Moreover, a correlation analysis between identity development and self-efficacy was performed to explore if, for instance, low self-efficacy related to yet a loose identity choice. We also examined the effect of age. Main observations included that many students showed ruminative exploration of identity, which was negatively associated with self-efficacy. Altogether, a rather high number of negative and neutral responses with respect to the identity choice was observed. An initial look at self-efficacy distributions suggests that students related to challenge positively, while a large number of neutral answers were found with respect to the dimension of Effort. This might be indicative of uncertainty about doing the work. Regarding the effect of age, younger students were observed to worry more about the future compared to older students.

Keywords: information technology; students; study; study performance; identity (mental objects); uncertainty

Free keywords: correlation; sociology; integrated circuits; education; uncertainty; writing; tools

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2020

JUFO rating: 1