Mistakes are often associated with negative connotations. However, they are an intrinsic part of learning science, particularly in inquiry-based settings, and students should therefore feel comfortable encountering them. Yet, research focusing on students’ abilities and dispositions in navigating mistake situations remains scarce; thus, the purpose of this thesis is to provide insights into students’ affective responses to mistakes across achievement situations in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory course. It is hypothesized that students’ affective reactions may be influenced by individual, situational, and contextual factors, which are examined in the thesis.

The thesis comprises three original studies: Study I investigated how mistakes in the chemistry laboratory shape students’ situational engagement, Study II focused on students’ emotional responses to laboratory mistakes, and Study III examined how mistakes in pre-lab activities influenced their situational engagement and how those predicted situational engagement in the subsequent laboratory sessions. All sub-studies employed an ecological momentary assessment design, collecting students’ momentary experiences in ecologically valid contexts, including the teaching laboratory and the online learning environment, for pre-lab activities. The data were analyzed within the multilevel structural equation modeling framework.

Four main findings emerged: 1) mistakes occur frequently and are an inseparable part of the learning experience, 2) there is great variability in students’ affective responses based on individual, situational, and contextual factors, 3) in general, mistakes trigger relatively negative affective responses (i.e., lower levels of positive emotions and perceived skills, and higher levels of negative activating emotions and perceived challenge), and, due to the increased challenge and emotional activation, they may also have a motivating effect, and 4) in terms of the affect, students might overcome their mistakes in a relatively short time. Moreover, the findings contribute to the discourse of chemistry laboratory education reform, framing the navigation of
mistake situations as a central learning objective. The research underpins the need for affective support, particularly for targeted groups of students, such as low-performers and those with high emotional costs, especially in the face of mistakes that are conceptual and caused by the lack of their own expertise.