The Failure Project: Self-Efficacy, Mindset, Grit and Navigating
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The Failure Project: Self-Efficacy, Mindset, Grit and Navigating Perceived Failures in Design and the Arts by Megan Workmon Larsen A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education Approved March 2018 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Pamela Kulinna, Chair Danah Henriksen William Heywood ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2018 ABSTRACT Artists and designers are preparing for rapidly changing and competitive careers in creative fields that require a healthy dose of resiliency to persevere. However, little is known on how students within these fields become more self-efficacious, gritty, situated toward a growth mindset, and persistent over time. This mixed-method action research study investigates how undergraduate arts and design college students approach and navigate perceptions of failure as well as incorporates an intervention course designed to increase their self-efficacy, growth mindset, and academic persistence. Participants were eighteen arts and design students representing a variety of disciplines from an eight-week, one-unit, 300-level course that utilized arts-based methods, mindfulness, and active reflection. After the course, students had significant changes in their self-efficacy and academic persistence as well as moderate significant change in their fixed mindset. i DEDICATION For my father, for his persistence and love of learning For my mother, for teaching me to fail with (some) grace and her unending resilience For my husband, for his wholehearted kindness and love ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. - from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke This work is full of questions, and I am forever grateful for those living them along with me into an answer. This work would not have been possible without the support of my family, friends, committee members, and academic institution. I am especially grateful for the guidance of my chair, Dr. Pamela Kulinna, as well as the unending support from my co- instructor Dr. William Heywood and committee member Dr. Danah Henriksen. To my friends and family, thank you for meeting me for weekend summits, asking questions, learning alongside me, and continuing your support of my persistence in this project. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................x PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER 1 CONTEXT ........................................................................................................................... 1 The Umbrella of Design and the Arts ................................................................................ 2 Creatives and the Creative Process .......................................................................... 2 Contextual Issues for Design and the Arts ............................................................ 7 Design and the Arts Training in Higher Education ............................................. 9 Preparation for a Career in Design and the Arts ................................................ 10 Educational Systems Context ............................................................................................. 10 Higher Education in Arizona ................................................................................. 11 Personal Context ................................................................................................................... 17 Rationale for Intervention ................................................................................................... 18 Problem of Practice and Purpose of Study ...................................................................... 20 2 REVIEW OF SUPPORTING SCHOLARSHIP ........................................................ 23 Primary Constructs ............................................................................................................... 23 Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Efficacy ........................................................... 23 Mindset ....................................................................................................................... 27 Grit .............................................................................................................................. 30 Persistence .................................................................................................................. 31 iv CHAPTER Page Supporting Constructs ......................................................................................................... 33 Resilience .................................................................................................................... 33 Theory of Planned Behavior ................................................................................... 36 Mindfulness ................................................................................................................ 39 Research on Similar Intervention Strategies .................................................................... 42 3 METHOD ........................................................................................................................... 47 Design of the Study .............................................................................................................. 48 Pairing Action Research with Design Thinking .................................................. 48 Sequential Mixed-Method Approach .................................................................... 51 Study Timeline ........................................................................................................... 52 Method .................................................................................................................................... 54 Role of Researcher .................................................................................................... 55 Cycle 1: Preliminary Exploration and Initial Course Module Design ............. 55 Cycle 2: Full Course Proposal and Instrument Refinement ............................. 61 Cycle 2.5: Intervention Course Final Design ....................................................... 82 Dissertation Cycle: Intervention Course Data Collection and Analysis ......... 86 Trustworthiness of Data ...................................................................................................... 97 Threats to Reliability and Validity ...................................................................................... 98 Threat of Instrumentation....................................................................................... 98 Threat of History ...................................................................................................... 98 Threat of Maturation ................................................................................................ 99 Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 99 4 RESULTS .......................................................................................................................... 100 v CHAPTER Page Quantitative Results ........................................................................................................... 101 Reliability of Quantitative Measures .................................................................... 101 Findings .................................................................................................................... 102 Qualitative Measures .......................................................................................................... 111 Participant Overview .............................................................................................. 112 Findings .................................................................................................................... 113 Participant Constructed Course Components .................................................. 113 Arts-Based Projects ................................................................................................ 116 Arts-Based Project Themes .................................................................................. 126 Semi-Structured Interviews ................................................................................... 129 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 150 5 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 151 Complementarity of Quantitative and Qualitative Data ............................................. 152 Results in Relation to Research Questions