Sense of Belonging as an Important Factor in the Pursuit of Physics: Does It Also Matter for Female Participants of the German Physics Olympiad?

Ladewig, Antonia; Keller, Melanie; Klusmann, Uta

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.548781

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 89 publications

(119 reference statements)

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“…Research has pointed to a problem of the low presence of women in undergraduate Physics courses 6 which is the reason why their motivation to learn Physics in primary and secondary school should be considered. Some of the reasons are the decline in females’ interest in Physics 39 which can be influenced by situations or environments which could promote negative stereotypes or females’ non-identification with Physics. In order to determine the contribution of different learning environments on females’ motivation to learn Physics, in present study examined the impact of real and virtual experiments, as the two most common new approaches in teaching Physics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The assumption is that there is a deep belief among girls that Physics is not for them. Women and girls in Science are faced with negative stereotypes about them, which negatively impact their belonging to the group 39 . Because Physics identities are directly correlated with self-confidence 6 , it is necessary to apply an inclusive learning environment to prevent discrimination and allow everyone to build up Physics (or science) identities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender motivational gap and contribution of different teaching approaches to female students’ motivation to learn physics

Radulović

Županec

Stojanović

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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This research focuses on potential gender differences in motivation to learn Physics with the aim to determine the weakest female motivational components to learn Physics and the contribution of different teaching approaches (using real and virtual experiments) on those components and motivation for learning Physics in general. These two approaches were chosen as the most commonly used approaches in physics but without clear compared indication on females’ motivation. The standardized questionnaire SMTSL (Student’s Motivation towards Science Learning) is used for the measurements. The results show that for female students the weakest motivational components to learn Physics are the importance of Physics as a science and self-efficacy. Virtual experiments contribute more to females’ motivation to learn Physics than applying real experiments. The female students who used real experiments show fear of being laughed at by their male peers and express doubt in their self-knowledge. Although the applied approaches cause some improvements in female students’ self-efficacy, they are not statistically significant. Research results suggest that teachers need to apply such teaching approaches that engage girls and encourage their learning and development in order to improve their self-efficacy and other motivational components.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender motivational gap and contribution of different teaching approaches to female students’ motivation to learn physics

Radulović

Županec

Stojanović

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Physics Olympiad presents a typically predominantly male science environment, while at the same time presenting a selective sample of participants who have shown ongoing interest in science by entering the competition and pursuing physics knowledge beyond school education. Although the competition does not explicitly broadcast stereotypes about women having lacking talent for science, previous research has indicated that stereotype threat has negative effects on female participants of science competitions (e.g., Steegh et al, 2019;Ladewig et al, 2020). It seems advisable to implement growth mindset and values affirmation interventions to protect female participants of the German Physics Olympiad from the potential damage by those stereotypes.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These students show interest and intention to engage in the domain by pursuing science outside the mandatory school curriculum. Nonetheless, female students who participate in such extracurricular science activities experience stereotype threat (see Ladewig at al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stereotypes in the German Physics Olympiad - Hurdle or no Harm at all?

2022

Self Cite

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The German Physics Olympiad is a science competition in which students can compete to measure their Physics knowledge and skills with other students. Female participants are underrepresented and typically drop out of the competition earlier than their male counterparts. As the cause for this underrepresentation, social identity threat theory identifies a threat to women’s gender identity in the predominantly male environment. Stereotype threat theory adds negative stereotypes about women’s abilities in physics as a heightening factor. In this study, growth mindset and values affirmation interventions, as well as a combination of both methods, were integrated into a weekend seminar of Physics content to protect female participants from the harmful influences of stereotype and social identity threat. As female and male students’ sense of belonging and gender identification remained at equal levels, respectively, after the interventions, the results did not show any effects of stereotype threat or social identity threat for the female students. The results suggest that women who are highly interested and talented in physics and have taken first steps to pursue physics and to engage with the physics community beyond mandatory school education are not as susceptible to stereotypes and harmful cues in the environment as might previously have been assumed. Implications for future research and science competitions are discussed.

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“…Variables predicting students' decisions to participate in science competitions were found to range from social roles and personal values to prior experiences and self‐schemata (see Steegh et al, 2019 for a review). In more recent work specifically focusing on the representation and achievements of girls in science Olympiads, the negative role of gender‐science stereotypes was closely examined and linked to interest (Ladewig et al, 2020; Steegh, Höffler, Höft, & I., 2021a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We are sorry to inform you…”—The effects of early elimination on science competition participants’ career aspirations

Garrecht,

Steegh,

Schiering

2023

J Res Sci Teach

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In the past, students' participation in science competitions has been positively associated with their aspirations to pursue a career in science. Previous studies, however, were predominantly focused around successful competitors, overlooking the largest group of participants: those who are faced with early elimination. We therefore aimed to investigate the effects of elimination on the development of biology‐related study and career task values and expectancy of success in first‐round participants of the German Biology Olympiad (N = 381, mean age 16.5 years, 72% female). This study was the first of its kind to use a latent change score model approach to examine the effects of early elimination, with a particular focus on participants who placed great emphasis on succeeding in the competition. We found that, regardless of success or failure, participants' biology‐related study and career task value remained stable from the first to the second round of the competition, while their expectancy of success in biology‐related studies and career developed positively. Yet, for those participants who placed great importance on advancing in the competition, early elimination interfered with the development of study and career expectations, resulting in a weaker development. The outcomes of this study suggest that (1) science competitions should re‐envision themselves to more directly address participants' values about studies and careers, especially in earlier competition rounds, and (2) science competitions should find innovative ways to provide detailed feedback to students and teachers to improve post‐elimination performance. Our findings complement existing expectancy‐value research and can serve as a starting point for future studies exploring mechanisms behind early elimination in different science domains and cultural contexts, providing empirical insight into creating an inclusive and supportive environment for all science competition competitors.

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Sense of Belonging as an Important Factor in the Pursuit of Physics: Does It Also Matter for Female Participants of the German Physics Olympiad?

Cited by 12 publications

References 89 publications

Gender motivational gap and contribution of different teaching approaches to female students’ motivation to learn physics

Gender motivational gap and contribution of different teaching approaches to female students’ motivation to learn physics

Stereotypes in the German Physics Olympiad - Hurdle or no Harm at all?

“We are sorry to inform you…”—The effects of early elimination on science competition participants’ career aspirations

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