2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this complete research paper, we advocate for a methodology with unique research affordances that also serve student mindset development. Mindset is an important element of student development; in particular, metacognition helps students learn more effectively and is a key component of lifelong learning. Theory on reflective practice suggests that key elements of metacognition are best developed through coaching. However, we find that students can develop similar skills through participation in research. We report on student mindset development from a sustained collaborative autoethnographic (CAE) study of student culture and mathematical modeling. Our results suggest two benefits: 1. Engaging in reflective practice through CAE can lead to both enhanced metacognition and advanced learning (benefiting students), 2. Engaging in sustained CAE creates ample opportunities to represent student voices, sharpening our understanding of the research object (benefiting researchers). Our results are of interest to engineering educators seeking research methods that simultaneously promote student mindset development and authentically represent student voices.