Establishing Baseline Measurements of Adaptive Expertise in First-Year STEM Students

Adaptive expertise is a construct developed to identify the cognitive skills involved in recognizing when and how to apply knowledge to successfully solve complex problems.The framework adopted for this study decomposes adaptive expertise into four distinct constructs: (1) multiple perspectives, (2) metacognition, (3) goals and beliefs, and (4) epistemology.The aim of the study is to establish baseline measurements along the four dimensions of AE among various populations of first-year students in STEM.Specifically, we are interested in studying differences in adaptiveness between students with and without limited-income status.We are also interested in studying differences in adaptiveness between men and women.From survey data collected from our incoming class over the past two years, preliminary results indicate that women score significantly higher than men in three dimensions (MP, META, and EPIST), but significantly lower than men in GB (goals and beliefs).Limited income students score lower than their non-LI counterparts in all AE dimensions, but significantly so in only two dimensions (MP and EPIST).Additional data collection is needed to understand how to interpret variations in scores and to establish baseline measurements with greater confidence.