Damage caused by societal stereotypes: Women have lower physics self-efficacy controlling for grade even in courses in which they outnumber men

Cwik, Sonja; Singh, Chandralekha

doi:10.1103/physrevphyseducres.17.020138

Cited by 25 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…However, affective benefits can be coupled with pedagogically effective strategies, such as engaging students in collaborative active learning, that simultaneously promote social belonging and content learning. , Generally, instructors can support students’ affective outcomes by promoting an inclusive classroom culture. ,, In a review by White et al describing inclusive and equitable practices in chemistry, the authors described the importance of the instructor mindset in creating an inclusive classroom culture and created a framework of equitable practices describing six categories including employing active learning and group work, fostering a sense of belonging, and validating students’ science identities. For example, the culture and environment of a STEM classroom set by an instructor’s practices and beliefs can influence students’ affective outcomes, including how students perceive themselves as scientists and science learners. ,− Thus, it is important for the instructor and instructional team to actively promote an inclusive culture within the classroom both through evidence-based pedagogical practices and explicit communication to students of the instructor’s belief in students’ ability to grow using effective study strategies (i.e., growth mindset). ,, To improve students’ science identity, instructors may incorporate diverse examples of successful scientists into their curriculum, including women, people of color, and chemists with diverse backgrounds and use diverse and inclusive examples, references, and analogies. − While these evidence-based teaching practices have been shown to improve student retention and performance in the classroom, more research is needed to determine which current and new asset-based classroom practices directly affect students’ course-level social belonging, especially belonging uncertainty, and how these asset-based classroom practices affect students with differing identities, such as women in chemistry.…”

Section: Implications For Instructorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Social Belonging on Persistence to General Chemistry 2

Edwards,

Torres,

Frey

2023

J. Chem. Educ.

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Students’ social belonging in general chemistry has recently been shown to predict course performance, and their course-level social belonging has been shown to differ across demographics, such as gender. This course-level social belonging consists of two components: 1) sense-of-belonging, referring to a student’s feeling of social connectedness to peers, instructors, and course environment; and 2) belonging uncertainty, referring to a student’s perception of the stability of one’s belonging or perceived ability relative to their peers in the class. In this study, we examined the belonging uncertainty as a novel factor that influences students’ persistence from General Chemistry 1 (GC1) to General Chemistry 2 (GC2). This study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic; hence, GC1 and GC2 were delivered remotely (containing synchronous and asynchronous components). Our results show evidence for 1) GC1 performance alone did not entirely explain students’ persistence to GC2 for students whose majors required GC2 (i.e., some students receiving an A and approximately half of the students with a C/C+ in GC1 did not continue to GC2), and late-semester GC1 belonging uncertainty predicts persistence for some women; 2) women reported having a higher belonging uncertainty than men at the beginning of GC2, despite there being no differences in final GC1 course grade across gender; and 3) for all students, the final GC1 course grade did not predict early semester GC2 belonging, even though the structures of the two courses were very similar. These findings add to the literature highlighting the importance of implementing inclusive practices throughout GC1 and GC2.

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Section: Implications For Instructorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Social Belonging on Persistence to General Chemistry 2

Edwards,

Torres,

Frey

2023

J. Chem. Educ.

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“…The data were collected using a motivational survey drawing on prior work and validated by our group [16,28]. The survey was administered at a large, public, research university in the U.S. to students in a two-semester introductory physics sequence in which women outnumber men.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women have lower physics self-efficacy controlling for grade even in courses in which they outnumber men

Cwik¹,

Singh²

2022

2022 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Self-efficacy has been shown to affect student engagement, learning, and persistence in various science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses and majors. Additionally, prior research has shown that women have lower self-efficacy than men in STEM courses in which women are outnumbered by men. This study examines the self-efficacy of men and women with similar performance in two consecutive algebrabased introductory physics courses in which women make up two thirds of the students. These were mandatory courses at a large public university in the US taken primarily by bioscience majors, many of whom are interested in health professions. Our findings show a gender gap in self-efficacy disadvantaging women when controlling for course grades in both physics 1 and physics 2 both at the beginning and end of the course. Additionally, we find that most of the gender gap in self-efficacy is due to biased perceptions rather than performance in the courses.

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“…Some prior research suggests that individuals' course enrollment and performance in STEM can be influenced by their motivational beliefs such as self-efficacy, interest and identity in that domain [1][2][3]5,7,9,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. For students from underrepresented groups, these motivational characteristics might be undermined due to lack of encouragement, negative stereotypes, and inadequate prior preparation, leading to withdrawal from STEM fields [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Hence, investigating students' motivational characteristics is critical to understanding and addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in STEM disciplines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How inclusiveness of learning environment predicts female and male students� physics grades and motivational beliefs in introductory physics courses

Li¹,

Singh²

2022

2022 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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In this study, we adapted a prior identity framework to investigate how students' perception of the inclusiveness of the learning environment (including sense of belonging, peer interaction and perceived recognition) in an introductory physics course predicts their course grades and physics motivational beliefs (including self-efficacy, interest and identity) at the end of this course. We found signatures of inequitable and non-inclusive learning environment in that female students' mean scores for sense of belonging, peer interaction and perceived recognition were all lower than male students' in the course. In addition, we found that female students had lower average course grades than male students. Using structural equation modeling, we found that students' perception of the inclusiveness of the learning environment predicts their self-efficacy, interest, identity and grades at the end of the course even after controlling for students' gender, motivational beliefs and grades in a previous course as well as their high school GPA and SAT math scores. In particular, students' perceived recognition, e.g., by instructors and teaching assistants, played a major role in predicting students' physics identity, and students' sense of belonging in physics played an important role in explaining the change in students' physics self-efficacy. Our findings can be helpful for creating an inclusive and equitable learning environment in which all students can excel.

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Damage caused by societal stereotypes: Women have lower physics self-efficacy controlling for grade even in courses in which they outnumber men

Cited by 25 publications

References 65 publications

The Effect of Social Belonging on Persistence to General Chemistry 2

The Effect of Social Belonging on Persistence to General Chemistry 2

Women have lower physics self-efficacy controlling for grade even in courses in which they outnumber men

How inclusiveness of learning environment predicts female and male students� physics grades and motivational beliefs in introductory physics courses

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