For the love of learning science: Connecting learning orientation and career productivity in physics and chemistry

Abstract

An individual’s motivational orientation serves as a drive to action and can influence their career success. This study examines how goal orientation toward the pursuit of a graduate degree in physics and chemistry influences later success outcomes of practicing physicists and chemists. Two main categories of goal orientation are examined in this paper: performance orientation or motivation to demonstrate one’s ability or performance to others, and learning orientation or motivation through the desire to learn about a topic. The data were obtained as part of Project Crossover, a mixed-methods study which focused on studying the transition from graduate student to scientist in the physical sciences and included a survey of members of two national professional physical science organizations. Using regression analysis on data from 2353 physicists and chemists, results indicate that physicists and chemists who reported a learning orientation as their motivation for going to graduate school were more productive, in terms of total career primary and/or first-author publications and grant funding, than those reporting a performance orientation. Furthermore, given equal salary, learning-oriented individuals produced more primary and/or first-author publications than their nonlearning oriented counterparts

Investigating approaches to diversity in a national survey of physics doctoral degree programs: The graduate admissions landscape

“…Further, variables relating to students' perceptions and motivations, independently or in combination with quantitative GRE, are also reported to be better predictors of success of graduate students in physics and other disciplines [26][27][28][29]. It was reported that students' prior interests in science and their motivation to pursue graduate studies predict career productivity in science [27,28]. Specifically, career scientists who reported they pursued graduate studies because they "loved thinking about science" were found to be more productive (in terms of grant funding and primary or firstauthor publications) than average, while those who pursued graduate studies because of good grades or fellowships were no more productive than average.…”

“…Further, variables relating to students' perceptions and motivations, independently or in combination with quantitative GRE, are also reported to be better predictors of success of graduate students in physics and other disciplines [26][27][28][29]. It was reported that students' prior interests in science and their motivation to pursue graduate studies predict career productivity in science [27,28].…”

High School Science Experiences Associated to Mastery Orientation Towards Learning

“…In previous work [10,11], we studied over 3,000 PhDholding scientists in physics and chemistry and identified those individuals who could be said to hold a mastery (or "learning") orientation (based on the reasons they chose to attend graduate school). These participants were recruited through their association to a pair of professional scientific societies, and were broadly representative of the U.S. population of practicing, PhD-holding physicists and chemists (including academics, industrial scientists, etc).…”

Potential Relationship of Chosen Major to Problem Solving Attitudes and Course Performance

“…A previous measure of matching success to attitudes towards physics has been established in a longitudinal study of physical science majors as they move from coursework to careers, namely in terms of orientation towards learning material for its own sake versus an orientation towards outcome [3]. On a smaller scale, within the scope of an individual course, it is generally useful to define a similar means of categorizing students within the classroom and use the categorization to analyze potential relationships to inclass success, e.g.…”