Increasing Students’ Self-efficacy in Consuming, Conducting, and Disseminating Neuroimaging Research: Experiences from Teaching EDPS 991: Social and Affective Neuroscience

Authors

• Isabella Starling Alves, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

Spring 5-23-2026

Document Type

Portfolio

Citation

Starling-Alves, I. (2026). Increasing students’ self-efficacy in consuming, conducting, and disseminating neuroimaging research: experiences from teaching EDPS 991: Social and Affective Neuroscience  University of Nebraska-Lincoln, FIRST Portfolio.

Comments

Copyright 2026, Isabella Starling Alves. Used by permission

Abstract

Social and emotional factors are critical for learning, being core aspects of the educational  psychology curricula. Recently, neuroimaging has emerged as a powerful tool to  comprehend the neurobiological factors underlying these factors. Yet, many educational  psychologists have low familiarity with neuroscience research. The course EDPS 991:  Social and Affective Neuroscience, from the Department of Educational Psychology at the  University of Nebraska-Lincoln, emerges in this context, training educational psychology  graduate students to consume, conduct, and disseminate findings about how the brain  relates to socioemotional processes. One challenge related to the course is that many  students feel anxious about learning the neuroimaging terminology, expressing signs of low  self-efficacy. The main goal of this project was to increase students’ self-efficacy in  neuroimaging research. Methods: Graduate students enrolled in EDPS 991 in Spring/26 (n =  8) completed a pre/post-test survey rating their self-efficacy in different topics related to  fMRI research. Instructional strategies involved brief lectures followed by hand-on  exercises, in addition to discussion of empirical articles. Results indicated that students’  self-efficacy increased significantly from pre- to post-test, suggesting the teaching  strategies were effective. However, students’ written feedback indicated further interest in  more extensive formal lectures and less time dedicated for discussions. Together, findings  highlight that hands-on experience supports students’ self-efficacy, but that qualitative  feedback is critical to tailor neuroscience courses to their needs.