Description
This thesis explores how pedagogical approaches in the first-year critical thinking and writing classroom can potentially mitigate (or complicate) the learning challenges students with Impostor Phenomenon (IP) face. The study begins by conducting secondary research that considers the IP manifestations which are potentially detrimental to learning experiences of students and determine some pedagogical approaches to address these students’ learning challenges. Then, three textual analyses are conducted on a sampling of critical thinking and writing textbooks to determine how textbook instruction complicates and/or mitigates the issues students with IP manifestations face. Last, suggestions are made based on the findings of the textual analyses. Through the synthesis of secondary research it is reasoned that students who struggle with IP manifestations will most likely go unnoticed by learning institutions because their outward appearance is confident and they often perform at the top of their class. However, these students struggle with feelings of inferiority, and to avoid their feelings of self-doubt they adapt by conforming to the expectations of their influential peers and authoritative figures. These adaptations can interrupt meaningful learning. Suggestions for overcoming IP manifestations which interrupt meaningful learning center on providing psychologically safe learning environments through the facilitation of mastery goal objectives and productive discourse contexts. The textual analyses reveal that textbooks could improve upon the facilitation of mastery goal instructions and psychologically safe learning contexts. Textbooks vary in their degree of reliance on mastery goal instructions, and this may be correlated to genre. Handbooks tend to provide a prescriptive approach to instruction whereas readers seem to employ mastery goal instruction more readily. Therefore, textbook selection should be considered when attending to the needs of students with IP. In addition, textbooks offer little guidance on how students can productively engage in discourses for the purpose of learning. Therefore, additional materials to guide students’ conduct in discourse learning contexts should be provided, and the facilitation of productive discourse learning environments needs to be managed. Through careful textbook selection and establishing guidelines to enter into productive discourse learning environments, students with IP characteristics will have a greater chance of engaging in meaningful learning.
