RUME 25
2023
Omaha, Nebraska
Exploring Fitness Trackers as a Research Method for Developing Personas of Stress during Classroom Problem Solving
Page: 226
In this report, I examine the capacity of fitness trackers to assist in differentiating students’ expe- riences of stress during classroom problem solving. I cluster N = 26 students’ heart rate vari- ability plots based on categories of description created using a phenomenographic analysis of their reported emotional experiences during a scripted lesson on roots of polynomial functions. My results reveal that fitness tracker data can be a valuable indicator of when a student will re- port classroom distress. However, the tracker data can give both “false-positive” and “false- negative” indications a student will report distress, reinforcing that biometric data cannot be treated as a proxy for students reported experiences of stress. Nonetheless, my results do support the use of fitness tracker data to guide deeper inquiry into student experiences. For example, fit- ness tracker data can assist in identifying classroom moments to discuss in a video stimulated recall interview.