Ken visited Exeter Psychology to present our work on Social Identity in Educational contexts, and to meet with colleagues and postgraduate students. The talk focused on our research on discipline-based social identity (for example, as a psychology student), peer norms, and instructor norms about approach to learning.
We now have a substantial line of work on this. The collaboration started with Michael Platow, and then became the main focus of Lillian Smyth’s PhD work. Lillian and Ken have continued this focus, extending the norms work to instructor norms. It was nice to have time in the talk to summarise what we have learned over the last 8 years and published in the following papers:
- Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., & Platow, M. J. (2018). Social identification and academic performance: integrating two existing models of tertiary student learning. Educational Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/01443410.2018.1524853
- Smyth, L., Chandra, V., & Mavor, K. I. (2018). Social identification and normative conflict: when student and educator learning norms collide. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48(6), 293-303. DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12505
- Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., Platow, M. J. (2017). Learning behaviour & learning outcomes: the role for social identification and field of study. Social Psychology of Education, 20, 69-95
- Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., Platow, M. J. & Grace, D. (2017). Understanding social identity in education: The modifying role for perceived norms, in Mavor, K. I., Platow, M. J. and Bizumic, B (Eds). Self and social identity in educational contexts. Routledge.
- McNeill, K. G., Smyth, L. & Mavor, K. I. (2017). The complexity of medical education: Social identity and normative influence in well-being and approaches to learning, in Mavor, K. I., Platow, M. J. and Bizumic, B (Eds). Self and social identity in educational contexts. Routledge.
- Smyth L., Mavor, K. I.,Platow, M.J., Grace, D. M., & Reynolds, K. (2015) Discipline social identification, study norms and learning approach in university students. Education Psychology.
- Platow, M. J., Mavor, K. I.& Grace, D. M. (2013). On the role of discipline-related self-concept in deep and surface approaches to learning among university students. Instructional Science, 41(2), 271-285.
The talk also presented new work, (1) extending the focus to identity incompatibilities that might arise when students life at university clashes with their life where they have come from, and the impact on approaches to learning and on procrastination and academic self-handicapping. (2) testing a possible normative intervention mechanism.