Students’ Expectations for Learning Executive Summary - Fall 2016

This project was a student-led assessment of students at Bowling Green State University. It was conducted by a team of four students identified as Student Learning Analysts (SLAs) as part of the Office of Academic Assessment. The SLAs designed a focus group protocol exploring students’ expectations about learning and fixed versus growth mindset. There were four focus groups facilitated by the SLAs with a total of 15 participants from varying class standings and majors. Audio recorders were used to ensure that all information was properly documented, which were then transcribed and coded into themes by the SLAs. All codes were analyzed and narrowed to four main themes with subthemes, which are listed below.

• Influence on Expectations
  • Influence from Others
  • Educational Influence
  • Time Allotted
  • Career Goals
  • Investment in Higher Education
  • Self-Influence

"I want to prove to people and my parents and myself that I can actually do this and go forward." (T2, L299).

• Interest Level
  • Major vs. Non-Major Classes
  • Engagement
  • Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

"…if it’s your major you're probably going to use it more. If you find it more interesting, you're more interested in learning it and you might want to study it." (T2, L49-51)

• Feedback
  • Motivation
  • Outlets
  • Consistency

"...Yeah, you go into the exam not knowing what to expect. You're just given a study guide of what to study, not how you're going to be tested over." (T1, Line 342-343)

• Self-Identified Potential
  • Success vs. Failure
  • Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

"Success to me is having a goal of what you want to get out of the class or what you want to do or learn and then coming out learning it… as a whole if I get what I wanted out of it then I consider that a success." (T2, L138-142)

For a full copy of this report, please contact Dr. Jessica Turos, Associate Director, Office of Academic Assessment at jmturos@bgsu.edu.

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