Towards a Learning Mindset: First-Year University Students' Qualitative Perspectives on Gratitude in the Context of Learning Effort
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v8i2.4454Keywords:
first-year experience, gratitude, positive psychology, resilience, well-beingAbstract
Signature strengths, such as gratitude, can assist students in navigating the demanding first-year experience. However, more research is needed to explore the role of gratitude in relation to cognitive benefits for students. This article reports on a constructivist grounded theory study that explored South African students' conceptions and enactments of gratitude with regard to their learning efforts. Qualitative data were collected in individual open-ended interviews (n = 22, age-range = 18-23) and analysed using three interdependent coding phases (initial coding, focused coding and theoretical coding). The resultant grounded theory was titled "˜Thanks: Gratitude and learning resilience amongst first-year university students". The findings revealed that gratitude could take many forms and has a positive qualitative impact on students' learning resilience, and that gratitude and learning resilience are emancipatory in nature. Limitations and areas for further research conclude the discussion.
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