Connecting Students' Collaborative Learning Experiences to their Epistemological, Ability and Belonging Beliefs

Collaborative learning activities have become more common in undergraduate physics courses, and the learning benefits of collaboration are a common research focus. However, less commonly investigated are the impacts of collaborative activities on students' beliefs about learning and themselves as learners. We conducted semi-structured interviews with introductory physics students to investigate how their collaborative experiences relate to their epistemological, ability and belonging beliefs. In this talk, we will present some observed themes from students' recounted experiences of collaboration in an introductory physics course, illustrating how collaborative experiences may impact and be impacted by these three beliefs. Our work contributes to existing research on physics course design by considering how collaborative learning activities are related to students' epistemological, ability, and belonging beliefs rather than just learning outcomes.