Perceiving Advancements: An Exploration of Positive Experiences that Strengthened Undergraduate STEM Students’ Motivation during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic was highly disruptive and Institutions of Higher Education struggled to effectively educate undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students, who were facing unique challenges in their modified learning environments. While some research has focused on educational challenges encountered in high-risk pandemic environments, limited empirical evidence exists to provide insights into the positive experiences of STEM students during the pandemic. Considering that motivation and positive psychology theorists emphasize that positive processes strengthen the optimal functioning of people and institutions, the purpose of this present research was to explore positive experiences that strengthened undergraduate STEM students’ motivation to complete their STEM course requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was obtained from an open-ended Qualtrics-based survey question requiring research participants to explain why salient positive experiences influenced motivation. An inductive thematic analysis method was adopted to analyze statements from 131 STEM students enrolled in six U.S. institutions. Utilizing the NVivo-12 qualitative analysis software, data analysis involved coding and theme development. Grounded in the data, the emergent theme, Perceiving Advancements, explained specific experiences that were described as positive and motivated the completion of STEM educational requirements. Drawing from previous lived experiences and expectations, STEM student motivation was attributed to the perceived capacity or potential of positive experiences to advance to academic, career, and personal goals. Theoretical insights contribute to understanding motivation in STEM students during high-risk contexts, while practical implications inform interventions for resource optimization and improved STEM student and institution resiliency in high-risk contexts such as pandemics. With caution, findings may be extended to inform positive psychology and motivation research, policies, and practices of non-STEM, non-undergraduate, and non-U.S. populations.