Investigating Nontraditional First-Year Students’ Epistemic Curiosity During the Research Process: An Exploratory, Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory, mixed-methods study was to investigate the relationship between nontraditional undergraduate students' curiosity and their experiences researching a topic. The author collected and analyzed survey data and annotated bibliography rubric scores from 59 students at a private, liberal arts university and conducted in-depth interviews to gather a fuller picture of the students' curiosity. Based on the study's findings, librarians and professors should create opportunities for students to select research topics to which they have a personal connection while intentionally offering supportive feedback to students as they refine their topics to reduce anxiety and frustration.

Pre-Service Primary School Teachers Interdisciplinary Competence and their Interest, Self-Concept, and Sense of Belonging Regarding Natural and Social Sciences: Findings from a Longitudinal Study in Germany

“…However, the results of the present study certainly do not reveal any information about causal associations, specifically whether preservice primary school teachers' interest, academic self-concept, and sense of belonging regarding natural and social sciences are impacted by their interdisciplinary competence, and/or vice versa. Nor can it be ruled out that the correlations just mentioned are spurious due to additional influencing or moderating factors (i.e., previous research hints that university students' curiosity is associated with both their interdisciplinary competence (Spelt et al, 2009) and their domain-specific affective-motivational orientations (e.g., Herpratiwi et al, 2018;Knecht, 2022;Yalız Solmaz, 2017)). Consequently, future research should be conducted to further clarify the associations between pre-service primary school teachers' (selfevaluated) interdisciplinary competence and their affective-motivational orientations related to natural and social sciences, such as their interest, academic self-concept, and sense of belonging.…”