Dissertation Proposal Announcement Ph.D. in Education Program: Daniel Colaneri “Exploring Affect and Motivation in Online Community College Pre-Calculus”

This proposal outlines a qualitative research study designed to investigate how motivation, affect, and mathematical engagement manifest among community college students enrolled in asynchronous, online Pre-Calculus courses. This study is crucial because the high autonomy and low real-time interaction inherent in asynchronous learning may exacerbate challenges like math anxiety, often making a student’s negative affective state “latent or invisible” to the instructor (Goldin et al., 2011). Leveraging constructs from Affective Structures Theory (Goldin et al., 2011), Mindset Theory (Blackwell et al., 2007), and Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999, as cited in Powell et al., 2003), this investigation addresses a critical gap concerning the psychological and pedagogical challenges of digital learning modalities post-pandemic. Using a sequential qualitative design (Survey to Interview), broad survey data will establish patterns of change in motivation (RQ1), which will then be explored in-depth through semi-structured interviews to understand student-attributed causes and experiences related to intrinsic mathematical value (RQ2), such as the perception of beauty and the acquisition of mathematical power (NCTM, 1989). The primary goal is to generate actionable, evidence-based recommendations to inform and enhance the design of future online mathematics curricula, specifically by mitigating latent anxiety and fostering a sense of community through structured digital collaboration. This research is fundamentally concerned with transforming the passive consumption of online material into active, psychologically supportive, and cognitively engaging experiences that build lasting mathematical confidence among students facing a critical academic transition into higher-level coursework.