Cultivating Trusting Teams: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Collaborative Learning in Undergraduate Physics

Abstract

Despite the collaborative nature of science and growing emphasis on teamwork in STEM education, our understanding of how undergraduate students perceive successful teams and develop psychological safety in these environments remains limited. My dissertation addresses this gap through interconnected qualitative and quantitative studies examining collaborative learning in undergraduate physics classrooms. In the qualitative study, I investigate how undergraduate physics students characterize successful teams using constructivist grounded theory to analyze 302 student written reflections collected over three academic terms (Fall 2021-2023). Students identify three key components of successful teams: effective management practices, positive and supportive interpersonal interactions, and process-oriented learning. In this analysis, I theorize how the key components of successful teams foster different types of trust needed for intellectual risk-taking. These findings reveal how distinct forms of trust serve as essential precursors to students freely sharing ideas, including uncertain, incomplete, or incorrect ones, which enables the dialectical processes necessary for effective collaborative learning. In in the quantitative research and intervention, I examine psychological safety, the shared belief that a team environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, as a critical but understudied factor in physics education. I identify significant associations between psychological safety and several key factors: demographic characteristics, goal orientations, and physics self-efficacy. The analysis reveals that students of minority race/ethnic status experience less psychological safety, while students with stronger mastery goal orientation experience enhanced psychological safety in their teams. Building on these findings, I implemented an intervention targeting communication barriers through structured communication guidelines. The evaluation shows promising evidence that this targeted intervention positively influences psychological safety levels compared to control conditions, suggesting that brief, psychologically precise interventions can be valuable tools for enhancing collaborative dynamics in STEM classrooms. Together, these qualitative and quantitative studies advance our understanding of collaborative learning in undergraduate STEM fields. The findings demonstrate that fostering trust and implementing targeted interventions are central to teaching collaborative skills. This research also informs how STEM educators can design team experiences that maximize student learning through meaningful peer interactions.