Copy the page URI to the clipboard
Wolfe, Christopher; Kolb, Ulrich; Jones, Mark and Jordan, Sally
(2023).
Abstract
The feeling of ownership is a psychological phenomenon that we are all familiar with, from the items we own to the jobs we do. Ownership has been shown to play an essential role in aspects of both work and education (Van Dyne & Pierce, 2004; Cocieru, 2020). This PhD study seeks to understand the relationship between psychological ownership and authentic learning in undergraduate STEM education.
This study will examine ownership feelings in the Open University’s undergraduate physics education programmes, emphasising the new module, S384 (Astrophysics of stars and exoplanets) and how it compares to other undergraduate physics and astrophysics modules. One of the main differences between the modality of practical work between modules like S384 and some of the other modules is whether students collect their own data, such as using the Open University’s remote PIRATE telescope, or whether students are given existing data from authentic scientific sources to analyse. Building on an earlier study on remote learning labs (Kolb et al., 2018), the study will research the differences in ownership feelings between the two modalities, should they exist, and investigate how these feelings relate to achievement outcomes.
The initial phase of the research, a literature review, has revealed a surprising depth to the ownership phenomenon and given tantalising clues that it may be linked to the authentic learning experience in unexpected ways. Further research is currently being conducted on authentic learning, and measurement instruments are in development. This digital poster presentation will deliver initial findings from the literature review on ownership and authentic learning and present the research questions that the study intends to investigate.
Cocieru, O. C., Lyle, M. C. and McDonald, M. A. (2020) “An exploration of the dynamic nature of psychological ownership in a classroom-as-organization,” Journal of Experiential Education, 44(3), pp. 293–307.
Kolb, U. et al. (2018) “A robotic telescope for university-level distance teaching,” Robotic Telescopes, Student Research and Education Proceedings, Vol 1, No 1 [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.32374/rtsre.2017.012.
Van Dyne, L. and Pierce, J. L. (2004) “Psychological ownership and feelings of possession: Three field studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior,” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(4), pp. 439–459.
Plain Language Summary
This poster announces the launch of a study to investigate the relationship between ownership and authentic learning. The aim is to understand the importance of ownership in motivation and whether this relates to better educational outcomes on the courses.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
