College Students' Perceptions of Confusion in Introductory STEM Courses

The present study is under a broader project studying how undergraduates in STEM fields experience and engage with ambiguity, uncertainty, and confusion. Beginning in several target courses designed to support students' learning productive disciplinary attitudes and practices, we collect data from students' written work and participation in activities. Consenting student subjects keep journals and give interviews, both within the target courses and in subsequent semesters. This analysis focuses on the interview data with 27 students of 2-3 interviews each during one semester. During the semi-structured interview, the interviewer asks a question about times when the student is confused, or unsure, and how they handle it. Our qualitative, thematic analysis begins by focusing on different students' responses to that interview question. Preliminary themes observed include the subject, the kind of confusion, the examples they used, and the ways they handle it. Categorizing themes in students' responses helps us understand their perceptions of confusion, which contributes to our project goal to understand the dynamics of students' engagement and how it develops. Manually coding linguistic data contributes to developing methodology with artificial intelligence to facilitate analysis.