Meet a Master's Student: Juliana Fox

April 18, 2023

Meryem Bahadir

Name: Juliana Fox

School of Biological Sciences Mentor: Associate Teaching Professor James Cooke

Undergraduate Institution: UC San Diego

Tell us about your area of focus

My research revolves around exploring the connection between student epistemology, which is an individual's conception of knowledge, and academic performance. I also am interested in the malleability of students' epistemic beliefs and the impact that probing of epistemology can have on academic outcomes for students. I'm currently analyzing data collected from STEM classes at UC San Diego to better understand:

1. How does epistemic belief correlate with academic performance?
2. Does administration of a survey on epistemic belief have the capacity to alter academic outcomes and/or epistemic beliefs of students?
3. Do the current epistemic beliefs of undergraduate students (especially post-pandemic) vary from the schemas demonstrated in prior research?

Presently, I am focused on analyzing data from a self-developed epistemology survey in conjunction with academic performance to answer these questions.

Why is this important?

There has been growing interest in the field of non-cognitive predictors of academic performance for years; it is key to continue to grow our understanding of non-cognitive predictors and raise awareness among educators and students alike of the complexity of the learning process and the multitude of factors that can inform a student's academic performance. My work in epistemology aims to not only better understand the current beliefs of students and their interaction with academic performance but also to utilize this understanding to generate applicable tools that can improve student outcomes.

How did you get interested in this area?

I was homeschooled throughout my elementary and middle school education, so I had limited exposure to the diversity of learning styles and outcomes that exists within education. When I entered high school and progressed to university, I was immediately intrigued by this variation and sought to understand how it came to be - what factors caused one student to get an A and another to get a B? I was unsatisfied with many of the conventional answers: intelligence, effort, etc. When I was presented with an opportunity to do independent research through ERC (Eleanor Roosevelt College) 92, a course that presents ERC students with the opportunity to engage in a personal research project during their sophomore year, I was lucky enough to be taking a class with Associate Teaching Professor James Cooke simultaneously. He was vocal about his research in biology education, and I was able to start working with him on a project. In reading the literature, I was finally exposed to the academic discourse surrounding educational opportunities and outcomes; the idea of non-cognitive predictors (e.g. predictors outside of your cognitive abilities) that were fluid, and thus could be positively impacted through educational practices, immediately pulled me in. Epistemology was a relatively under-saturated niche of the existing literature, and I decided that's where I wanted to start my research journey!

What does a typical day look like for you?

As a graduate student, my day-to-day activities vary quite a bit, since my time is split between being a student and a researcher. I'm currently taking graduate courses in neurobiology and biostatistics, so a good chunk of my time is taken up by attending classes and studying. I also spend time each day working as a TA - currently for BILD 2; I absolutely love teaching and applying what I've learned in education research to the classroom. For my research, I am currently in the process of coding my qualitative data and performing data analysis, so many days I'm either in meetings with my mentors or sitting at my computer working on Excel spreadsheets and coding in R. Lastly, I also work as a clinical research assistant in the Daniels Lab with UC San Diego Cardiology; a few days per week, I am in the lab consenting patients to clinical trials and doing data entry. In my free time, I really enjoy going to the gym, cooking and trying new restaurants!

What do you enjoy most about being a master's student?

My favorite part about being a master's student is the freedom that I have! I've always loved being in school and doing a master's program gives you all the best parts of school - making connections with faculty, collaborating with other students, learning and exploring your field every day - without the stress and busy work of undergraduate programs. I love that every day I have the opportunity to learn from my professors, my mentors and my fellow students; I also really appreciate the opportunities to work as a teaching assistant and see the impact first-hand that inclusive, supportive teaching practices can have on students!

What advice do you have for someone starting as a master's student at UC San Diego?

My advice would be to really push yourself to get the most out of it; the master's program is a "choose your own adventure" style of program. It's definitely a program where you could sit back, go through the motions, and be done a few quarters later with minimal effort; however, it's also a program that gives you enormous latitude to take the classes that interest you, make life-long connections with professors and students in your field and come out with a greatly enhanced understanding of not just your field but yourself and your goals. I am planning on progressing to a PhD program in Neurobiology after my master's; however, I would never have the confidence to do so if I didn't first push myself to take classes in neurobiology and meet professors in that field now. I really would encourage incoming master's students to be bold - take that extra class that looks interesting, reach out to that professor who scares you a bit but could really help with your research and get the most out of this experience!

What is your favorite type of food?

My favorite type of food is Italian; I am a huge foodie - I love cooking, baking and going out to new restaurants. I think that if I could only eat tiramisu and pasta for the rest of my life, I honestly wouldn't mind.

What's something most people don't know about you?

Something that most people don't know about me is that I have recently gotten into hiking! I've always loved watching mountaineering and climbing documentaries but was never much of a nature person; however, I recently started hiking more serious trails on the weekends with my mom and have fallen in love with it! My big goal for the next few years is to complete the California 14ers (the tallest peaks in California, all of which are over 14,000 feet tall).