“It Seems Like I’m Doing Something More Important”—An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Transformative Impact of Research Experiences for STEM Students with ADHD
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Methodology
2.1. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
2.2. Self-Determination Theory
2.3. The Strength-Based Approach to Undergraduate Research
2.4. Study Participants
2.5. Data Collection
2.6. Analysis
2.7. Reflexivity
3. Results
3.1. Theme 1: The Demonstrable Harms of Conventional Education
[Y]ou need to be able to listen in lecture, and also, like, take notes, um, and if you’re not […] perfectly up to date with the material, and you go to the next class, then…it will not really make sense […T]here’s been a lot of times where I just kind of ignore a class for a couple days because I’m working on something else, and then the class that I ignored gets even harder because I ignored it […] And then it just keeps going like that, and, like, uh, I really don’t take notes, typically, because I, like, stop paying attention if I do take notes. […] I’m thinking about what I’m writing […] I’m listening, but I’m just, like, regurgitating it onto the paper… So, I’ve found it more useful to not take notes. (Julian)
At first it was really bad. I almost dropped out of college […] I was already psychologically going downhill, but I just, having ADHD, like, there would be days where I’d be studying 10 h for chemistry 101, which is, like, such an easy course, but like, just, the things they want us to do are so—it’s you have to complete this, and you have to do it this way. And, like, figuring out what [instructors] wanted me to do is always really difficult. And it just kept progressing worse and worse and I ended up going to a hospital for a week and being out of school for a while. I was considering dropping out of school, so, I think ADHD had a big part in my experience, ‘cause I struggled a lot more in classes than other people did.
“I didn’t until I came here… Now that I understand, like, I’m really creative, like, let me just try and figure out another way to be able to complete these processes… like, now that I’m aware, of… the way that I kind of tick a little bit better. Like, naturally I’m better at design courses, and, um, and lab courses… at least, like, now I, after going here I’ve learned more that, just because I can kind of look at everyone’s ideas, and like figure out, like, all the possibilities that can happen, or like, try and come up with, like, ten ideas…”
3.2. Theme 2: Enhancing Engagement by Embracing Exploration
Like, you research, you’re trying to figure out a certain problem, and so you read a bunch of papers related to it, and you try to make your own solution to a specific problem, but in order to solve that problem, no one else knows the answer to the problem. That’s why you’re solving it. There are… there could be multiple solutions to it. As long as it works, it’s the right answer. So that’s, it gives you a freedom that’s not available in education. That, um, alternate answer kind of thing, and also if you don’t get it right in research, you’re not given a B, or a C, or a D, or an F, or anything like that.
But, um… like, with having ADHD, at least within myself, like, I already try and figure out six different other things to […] better understand the one thing. Or, like, I’m given one task, and I’m trying to figure out six different solutions to do that one task to, like, find the best one… as opposed to, like, the linear path, where it’s like, ‘okay, I’ve given this task… I know I can do it this way, so, like, let me accomplish it this way.’ […I]t’s just not as fun that way.
The stuff I’m doing is a lot more open-ended than what I’m used to doing in the circuits class […] I think it helps a lot to be able to work through something really open-ended ‘cause then you have to kinda search for some of the things that actually matter. That actually make[s] a difference, instead of just plugging everything into equations […] In my case, it’s helping a lot.
I guess, just kind of like, having my own stuff, and like, trying to work on something that hasn’t actually been solved yet, and isn’t just work for the sake of learning […] I guess [it is] just fun to have my own computer, and they just tell me, like, I need you to do these things, and then I try and figure out how to do that in whatever way that I think I’m gonna be able to do it best.
3.3. Theme 3: The Motivational Force of Solving Real-World Problems and the Importance of Tangibility
“…and so you don’t have to, like, sit down and be quiet, and like, stuff like that, as much, so it’s kind of, I think it’d be maybe more beneficial for students with ADHD in that sense, that it’s like more, you don’t have to like, sit there and like, listen to someone lecture you to learn. Like, it’s more of a hands-on thing. It’s more, like, you’re directly involved, I guess.”
having to learn it so quickly, and that challenge, that adrenaline rush in learning, you know, all of that [...] It was hands-on. It was more interactive. It was easier to learn that way. […] That’s just the way that we learn, generally, as ADHD students, and when I went back to the classroom, [I wish] I could show that in a different medium.
Um, I’ve really enjoyed the chance to… to see, like, what hands-on actual problem-solving programming is, because in school, it’s… it’s here is a very isolated problem to solve. It… it can’t do anything.You’re just solving this problem to solve the problem. Um, here you’re actually trying to get it to do something, and that’s a huge step from what I’ve done in classes […] I think it gives me a… an idea of what the end goal is […] I know the foundation, and I know what is required, and what the idea is for, like, a real-world application… so I know sort of, the difference between the two and what’s in between them […] I guess that helped me learn it faster because I was able to spend more time on it.
Even if I didn’t necessarily remember everything, I’d still have an intuition for, oh well, I need this component and this component, because this component is gonna do this[…] In the actual experimental stuff, it’s kinda almost more qualitative than quantitative[…] It’s more getting the hands-on experience, like, knowing, if I change this component to a higher or lower value, what’s that gonna do[…] Having the intuition makes it easier to apply that in other situations. (Bridget)
I like the experience of the moving parts, everything together, the whole package. I wouldn’t like to just do the programming. Even in my classes, I like to participate in every aspect of it. Even though we’ll work in groups most of the time, but I like to help on every part. I’ll help with the programming, or help add things to the code, but I also like to do wiring, and move things around, and say, oh, well, I think this would be better here, or I think we should use this sensor instead. (Tom)
4. Discussion
Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A. Interview Question Bank
- Creativity
- How would you describe yourself as a person?
- Can you tell me about some of the ways that you are creative?
- Can you describe some of the challenges you face with your creativity?
- Do you ever find it hard to come up with ideas?
- Do you ever find it hard to follow through on your ideas?
- Experiences in engineering
- Tell me the story of how you came to focus on engineering?
- If you were not doing engineering, what other major(s) would you consider pursuing?
- Do you think your undergraduate engineering education has nurtured your creativity?
- Have you ever suppressed your creative thinking for the sake of a better grade or educational outcome?
- Challenges with instructions
- Could you tell me how you have been able to use your creativity in your engineering program? are there any research projects that you have been able to be more creative on (what specifically did you do for that?)? Is there any homework that you have been able to be more creative on (what specifically did you do for that?)? Has there been any specific coursework that you have been able to be more creative on (what specifically did you do for that)?
- Could you describe some of the challenges you have faced in your engineering program?
- Do you ever have trouble misunderstanding or misinterpreting instructions?
- Faculty advisor
- Classroom
- Work teams
- Can you tell me about a time when you misinterpreted the instructions that were presented to you?
- Why do you think that happened?
- Is that typically the case when you have trouble with instructions, or are different types due to other factors that you can think of?
- Do you think, or how do you think, that can be avoided?
- Writing instructions down as they are said
- Reading instructions instead of hearing them
- Aside from specific strategies, are there situations where you are more likely to understand instructions fully?
- Certain people
- More or less people present
- Certain types of tasks
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Sex | N (%) |
---|---|
Female | 4 (40%) |
Male | 6 (60%) |
Race/Ethnicity | |
Hispanic or Latinx | 1 (10%) |
White | 9 (90%) |
Highest Grade Completed | |
Freshman | 1 (10%) |
Sophomore | 2 (20%) |
Junior | 7 (70%) |
Major (Field of Study) | |
Chemical Engineering | 1 (10%) |
Computer Science Engineering | 3 (30%) |
Electrical Engineering | 3 (30%) |
Mechanical Engineering | 2 (20%) |
Physics | 1 (10%) |
Dual major reported (Math, Philosophy) | 2 (20%) |
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Zaghi, A.E.; Grey, A.; Hain, A.; Syharat, C.M. “It Seems Like I’m Doing Something More Important”—An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Transformative Impact of Research Experiences for STEM Students with ADHD. Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 776. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080776
Zaghi AE, Grey A, Hain A, Syharat CM. “It Seems Like I’m Doing Something More Important”—An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Transformative Impact of Research Experiences for STEM Students with ADHD. Education Sciences. 2023; 13(8):776. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080776
Chicago/Turabian StyleZaghi, Arash E., Alexander Grey, Alexandra Hain, and Connie M. Syharat. 2023. "“It Seems Like I’m Doing Something More Important”—An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Transformative Impact of Research Experiences for STEM Students with ADHD" Education Sciences 13, no. 8: 776. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080776
APA StyleZaghi, A. E., Grey, A., Hain, A., & Syharat, C. M. (2023). “It Seems Like I’m Doing Something More Important”—An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Transformative Impact of Research Experiences for STEM Students with ADHD. Education Sciences, 13(8), 776. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080776