144 - Motivation in Community-engaged Learning: For Grades or Growth?

Poster Board Number: 144
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Co-authors:

Sarah McLean, PhD - Associate Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Western University

Abstract Body : How can we give our students relevant opportunities to apply their learning in STEM disciplines? Community engaged learning (CEL) is a teaching pedagogy characterized by academic institutions bringing learning into the community, for the benefit of both students and community members. Current literature suggests that CEL has a potent ability to increase civic engagement and beneficence in both students and community members, modulate empathy, enable students to use more metacognitive strategies, and translate their academic ability into applicable skills. However, current evidence and anecdote also suggest that students are primarily motivated extrinsically- for example, by grades and performance- especially in biomedical science disciplines such as anatomy. Given that these disciplines often lead to service careers in science and healthcare, a dominance of extrinsic motivation may be disadvantageous to both the students and the eventual communities they serve. Therefore, this investigation aims to assess levels of extrinsic and intrinsic student motivation in a 4^th year undergraduate Biomedical science CEL course and explore whether the unique course structure itself may serve to modulate motivational type. This study was conducted via a mixed methods design, using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) as the quantitative portion, and thematic analysis of student reflections and focus group responses as the qualitative arm. The quantitative results (n=14) demonstrate that students show individual variability regarding their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as reliance on both surface and deep approaches to learning. The qualitative results corroborate meaningful changes in student mindset and methodology as they progress through the course. This further demonstrates that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation do not exist in isolation, but rather engage in complex interplay, dependent on their contextual relevance. CEL provides a holistic, humanistic approach to biomedical instruction that otherwise may silo students from their communities. This study will aid educators in understanding student motivation in STEM fields and can inform practices to enable students to harness a broader range of motivational strategies for the benefit of their own success, and the well-being of their communities