Chinese STEM university students' self-authorship development : antecedents, mechanisms, and outcomes

Abstract

Self-authorship, one’s internal capacity for defining one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations, has become a central concept in understanding university students’ developmental processes and outcomes. This research pioneers the investigation of the antecedents, mechanisms, and outcomes of self-authorship development among Chinese university students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In particular, it examines (1) the impact of students’ perceived learning environment and perceived academic competence on their self-authorship and the mediating effects of thinking styles on these relationships; (2) the associations of self-authorship with university outcomes (as represented by students’ self-reported learning behaviors, critical thinking dispositions, and subjective well-being); and (3) the concurrent mediating effects of self-authorship and sequential mediating effects of thinking styles and self-authorship on the relationships of students’ perceived academic competence and perceived learning environment to their university outcomes. This research adopted a quantitatively driven mixed-method approach, comprising three phases. Phase I validated the inventories used in the main study and consisted of three pilot studies: Pilot Study One (N= 348), Pilot Study Two (N= 263), and Pilot Study Three (N= 663). Phase II was a quantitative main study that examined the research hypotheses. A total of 1035 STEM university students from three comprehensive universities in Heilongjiang, P.R. China, responded to the inventories validated in the pilot studies. Phase III was a follow-up qualitative study that involved 15 students selected from the main study participants. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to further understand the findings obtained in the main study. The findings essentially supported the research hypotheses. First, students’ perceived academic competence and perceived learning environment statistically significantly predicted their self-authorship development, with the former being a more potent contributor. Additionally, students’ thinking styles mediated the predictive relationships of the environmental and personal factors to self-authorship. Second, self-authorship was confirmed to be a fundamental capacity that facilitated participants in achieving university outcomes. Specifically, students who demonstrated advanced stages of self-authorship (i.e., the Crossroads and the Early Self-authoring stages) tended to score higher on desired university outcomes (e.g., positive affect, critical thinking self-confidence, and good learning behaviors). In contrast, students who demonstrated a primitive stage of self-authorship (i.e., the External Formulas stage) tended to score higher on negative affect, an undesirable outcome. Third, as expected, the predictive relationship of students’ perceived academic competence and perceived learning environment to their university outcomes was mediated by self-authorship. Furthermore, sequential mediation analyses revealed the statistically significant indirect effects of students’ perceived learning environment on their university outcomes – first through thinking styles and then via self-authorship. The present research makes theoretical contributions to the literature on all seven key research variables investigated. It also has practical implications for stakeholders in Chinese higher educational institutions, including university senior managers and policymakers, student development practitioners, faculty members, and students. Limitations of the research are discussed, while future research directions are proposed. (Word count:470).