Unveiling the Interplay of Students’ Epistemic Emotions and Knowledge Building Activities in Design Studios
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58459/icce.2024.4830Abstract
Educational research may have established intricate connections between student achievements and emotions, but there remains a need to conduct more research on the crucial role of students' epistemic emotions during learning. The emergence of global knowledge societies has nudged researchers to delve deeper into the understanding of students' epistemic emotions within evolving learning environments, such as knowledge building environments that encourage complex learning and knowledge creation. This study addresses this gap via a naturalistic study of students' epistemic emotions in a student Knowledge Building Design Studio (sKBDS). We aim to illuminate the intersections between epistemic emotions and knowledge building activities, with findings to inform the design of more rigorous studies and designs to advance knowledge building practices. An Epistemic Emotion Survey (EES) was adapted for gathering students' epistemic emotions and to align with knowledge building activities in the sKBDS. A total of 11022 sets of epistemic emotion data from 73 primary and secondary school students were collected from two runs of the sKBDS, compiled into a single repository for descriptive analysis. Findings show that students experienced heightened curiosity, interest, excitement, and were generally happy to participate in activities at the sKBDS, while demonstrating relatively less anxiety, frustration, and confusion when undergoing knowledge building activities. Throughout the sKBDS, students also exhibited surprise at planned activities and what they have discovered and worked on. In addition, knowledge building activities also had varying effects on students' emotions, ranging from tiredness and hunger to occasional positive feelings. Overall, the findings from this study will be used for improving knowledge building practices and designs in future design studios, with implications for educators, students, and researchers.