Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions

The number of physics bachelor’s degrees that are awarded in the United States annually is small compared to most other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, and only about one-fifth of these degrees are awarded to women. Understanding the influence of students’ science and engin...

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Autores principales:	Robynne M. Lock, Zahra Hazari, Geoff Potvin
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2019
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5a4fab657ecd46ceb2d947d61476c7ee
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5a4fab657ecd46ceb2d947d61476c7ee2021-12-02T12:04:25ZImpact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.0201372469-9896https://doaj.org/article/5a4fab657ecd46ceb2d947d61476c7ee2019-10-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.020137http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.020137https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896The number of physics bachelor’s degrees that are awarded in the United States annually is small compared to most other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, and only about one-fifth of these degrees are awarded to women. Understanding the influence of students’ science and engineering experiences on career choices is critical in order to improve future efforts to increase the number of physics majors and the participation of women. In this work, we use a physics identity framework to examine the impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on three identity dimensions and the relationship between these dimensions and physics career choice. Through structural equation modeling of survey data from 5541 college students, we find that out-of-class science and engineering activities have the largest influence on physics performance/competence beliefs, but the association of performance/competence beliefs to overall physics identity and physics career choice is primarily mediated through recognition beliefs and physics interests. Furthermore, out-of-class science and engineering activities have a larger effect on recognition beliefs for men than for women, which is a challenging finding in light of the fact that recognition beliefs are the most influential identity dimension for women. The results of this work begin to highlight the need for out-of-class science and engineering activities that focus on not only enhancing students’ performance/competence beliefs but also students’ interests, particularly those students not previously interested, and women’s recognition beliefs with respect to physics.Robynne M. LockZahra HazariGeoff PotvinAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 15, Iss 2, p 020137 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Robynne M. Lock Zahra Hazari Geoff Potvin Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions
description	The number of physics bachelor’s degrees that are awarded in the United States annually is small compared to most other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, and only about one-fifth of these degrees are awarded to women. Understanding the influence of students’ science and engineering experiences on career choices is critical in order to improve future efforts to increase the number of physics majors and the participation of women. In this work, we use a physics identity framework to examine the impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on three identity dimensions and the relationship between these dimensions and physics career choice. Through structural equation modeling of survey data from 5541 college students, we find that out-of-class science and engineering activities have the largest influence on physics performance/competence beliefs, but the association of performance/competence beliefs to overall physics identity and physics career choice is primarily mediated through recognition beliefs and physics interests. Furthermore, out-of-class science and engineering activities have a larger effect on recognition beliefs for men than for women, which is a challenging finding in light of the fact that recognition beliefs are the most influential identity dimension for women. The results of this work begin to highlight the need for out-of-class science and engineering activities that focus on not only enhancing students’ performance/competence beliefs but also students’ interests, particularly those students not previously interested, and women’s recognition beliefs with respect to physics.
format	article
author	Robynne M. Lock Zahra Hazari Geoff Potvin
author_facet	Robynne M. Lock Zahra Hazari Geoff Potvin
author_sort	Robynne M. Lock
title	Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions
title_short	Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions
title_full	Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions
title_fullStr	Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions
title_full_unstemmed	Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions
title_sort	impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/5a4fab657ecd46ceb2d947d61476c7ee
work_keys_str_mv	AT robynnemlock impactofoutofclassscienceandengineeringactivitiesonphysicsidentityandcareerintentions AT zahrahazari impactofoutofclassscienceandengineeringactivitiesonphysicsidentityandcareerintentions AT geoffpotvin impactofoutofclassscienceandengineeringactivitiesonphysicsidentityandcareerintentions
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Impact of out-of-class science and engineering activities on physics identity and career intentions

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