Akpanoko, C. E., Ashwin, T. S., Cordell, G., & Biswas, G. (2024). Investigating the Relations between Students’ Affective States and the Coherence in their Activities in Open-Ended Learning Environments, 511-517. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12729872
Open-ended learning environments (OELEs) are educational settings that encourage students to explore, experiment, and construct their own understanding of STEM concepts. While OELEs can increase engagement and deepen learning, they can be challenging for novice learners who may lack the self-regulated learning (SRL) skills needed to manage their own learning effectively. Recent research highlights the importance of students’ emotions (affective states) and thinking processes (cognitive processes) in determining performance in these environments, but the connection between these factors has not been fully explored.
In this study, we examined how students’ emotional states relate to the consistency of their cognitive strategies while they worked on building causal models of scientific processes in the XYZ OELE. Our findings show that high-performing students use more coherent cognitive strategies, and their emotional states differ significantly from those of low-performing students, reflecting the impact of cognitive strategy coherence on affect. This work provides new empirical insights into the interplay between thinking and emotions in OELEs, highlighting how students’ understanding of their own learning processes shapes their emotional experiences in STEM learning.
