Racelis, J. V. (2024, July), Full Paper: Examining first-year students’ nascent disciplinary identities and epistemological orientations  Paper presented at 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE), Boston, Massachusetts. 10.18260/1-2--48598

\bibitem{asee_peer_48598}
  Racelis, J. V. (2024, July), \emph{Full Paper: Examining first-year students’ nascent disciplinary identities and epistemological orientations}
  Paper presented at 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE), Boston, Massachusetts.
  10.18260/1-2--48598

Juval V Racelis.  "Full Paper: Examining first-year students’ nascent disciplinary identities and epistemological orientations".  15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE), Boston, Massachusetts, 2024, July.  ASEE Conferences, 2024.  https://peer.asee.org/48598 Internet.  22 Jan, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_48598}
  Juval V Racelis.
  "Full Paper: Examining first-year students’ nascent disciplinary identities and epistemological orientations".
  \emph{15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE), Boston, Massachusetts, 2024, July}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2024.
  https://peer.asee.org/48598 Internet.  22 Jan, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_48598
author = "Juval V Racelis"
title = "Full Paper: Examining first-year students’ nascent disciplinary identities and epistemological orientations"
booktitle = "15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)"
year = "2024"
month = "July"
address = "Boston, Massachusetts"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/48598}
number = {10.18260/1-2--48598}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Research on retention and persistence has shown the role that belonging and disciplinary connectedness can play in student self-efficacy and academic success. This has contributed to STEM curriculum innovations and first-year programming that has sought to foster disciplinary identity through engagement in undergraduate research and co-op programs. Such innovation and research are especially important for students from marginalized backgrounds who are often underrepresented in certain STEM fields. 

While much research has investigated pedagogical innovations and curricular programming to address these issues, few studies have explored the nascent disciplinary orientations that first-year students bring with them as they transition from high school to their first year in college. This is particularly relevant for students who enter their first year with a declared STEM or design major. Exploring these conceptualizations of curriculum at a key point of transition can help elucidate ways to further foster students’ disciplinary identity, thereby contributing to persistence and self-efficacy.

In this paper, I analyze qualitative interviews of first-year engineering and design students to examine how students orient toward what it means to be an engineering student. Findings from this study reveal that many students who choose to be engineering or design majors bring with them STEM-oriented identities that are rooted in high school learning practices that focus on hands-on learning. This learning orientation suggests that students’ nascent disciplinary identities are epistemologically oriented toward certain ways of knowing. These findings have implications for student self-efficacy and persistence in engineering-related coursework such as the hard sciences and technical writing where connections to their discipline may not always be immediately apparent. 
AU  - Juval V Racelis
CY  - Boston, Massachusetts
DA  - 2024/07/28
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Full Paper: Examining first-year students’ nascent disciplinary identities and epistemological orientations
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/48598
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--48598
ER  -