Understanding the STEM student: Holistic strategies from social cognitive theory and the KAPA model of personality architecture

Abstract

This paper identifies and addresses two gaps that typically have separated practical needs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education from basic psychological science research on non-cognitive factors in educational success. The gaps are: (1) educators want a holistic understanding of students whereas researchers commonly have explored isolated individual-difference variables; (2) educators need assessment procedures that are efficient whereas the most common holistic assessment technique, interviews, is time-consuming and thus inefficient. STEM educators can bridge both gaps by capitalizing on person-centered, idiographic assessment methods in personality science. Specifically, we explain how advances in social cognitive theory, its study of self-efficacy processes, and the person-centered social-cognitive approach known as the Knowledge-and-Appraisal Personality Architecture (KAPA) yield an efficient, holistic method of understanding individual students, their distinctive strengths and weaknesses, and their beliefs about STEM education challenges. We illustrate the theoretical principles through illustrations from ongoing STEM education research.