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While physics is often promoted as being for everyone, its cultural narrative, i.e., what physicists do and who they are, has been and continues to be created by a dominant social group. As such, many students who come from marginalized backgrounds in physics are required to fit themselves into its narrow culture that does not reflect who they are and how they see the world. As physics educators, we have unconsciously internalized this narrow physics culture and need resources to help broaden our perceptions. To this end, we suggest some design principles for creating materials that help physics educators reflect on these issues and disrupt inequitable structures in their classrooms. We draw on the STEP UP project to exemplify how these design principles were implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that women are underrepresented in science. technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) and that their interest declines more steeply over the schooling years. As such, this study uses a STEM identity theoretical framework to examine the effects of early STEM experiences, focusing particularly on experiences that may be more formative for female students. Given that early experiences are a form of capital, the study is also guided by nuanced perspectives on STEM capital and STEM identity capital. The data used were drawn from surveys administered to 15,725 college students. Blocked regression models were utilized and the results indicated a significant effect on STEM identity for students who reported encouragement in STEM from elementary school teachers, using STEM toys/kits, watching STEM‐related TV programs or movies, playing STEM computer/video games, and observing or studying stars and other astronomical objects. Negative experiences included baking/cooking/kitchen chemistry and writing about STEM. To examine which of these experiences had long‐lasting impact in the face of intervening experiences in middle/high school, controls were provided for middle/high school STEM interest. This indicated early experiences that translated to STEM identity capital in the future. Only observing stars became nonsignificant, while the other early experiences likely contributed to STEM identity capital. The findings highlight early experiences that can be formative for STEM identity years later (i.e., STEM identity capital) despite intervening years of changing STEM interest. As such, the results provide both practical and theoretical insight into understanding the development and maintenance of STEM identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the growth of active learning, it is important to understand how students begin to experience agency within and beyond the classroom. Agency in this context refers to students taking intentional self-driven actions that are not necessarily prescribed. We propose and examine a measure that can identify students' micro-agency (initiation of agential actions), which can be used to assess how students progress through a course toward a more robust agential position in learning science. The construct for micro-agency compares students' micro-agential acts in science with their own normative acts in other academic domains. The items include five micro-agential actions that students can take within the context of a typical science class as well as in their other classes. Data was collected for these items in introductory physics (n = 60), chemistry (n = 156), and biology (n = 77) courses to assess the validity and reliability of the construct, which in all cases was strongly supported. We propose that using this measure can be an easy indicator of students' development of micro-agency for educators and can be used by researchers to study practices that begin to promote agency among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the relationship between participants' childhood science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related experiences, their STEM identity (i.e., seeing oneself as a STEM person), and their college career intentions. Whereas some evidence supports the importance of childhood (i.e., K‐4) informal STEM education experiences, like participating in science camps, existing research does not adequately address their relationship to STEM career intention later in life. Grounding our work in identity research, we tested the predictive power of STEM identity on career intention (N = 15,847). We found that for every one‐point higher on our STEM identity scale, participants' odds of choosing a STEM career in college increased by 85%. We then tested whether a variety of childhood informal experiences predicted participants' STEM identity. While controlling for home environment, gender, and other relevant factors, only talking with friends and family about science, and consuming science and science‐fiction media (i.e., books and television) were predictive of STEM identity in college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the February 2017 issue of The Physics Teacher, an article was presented that highlighted the importance of high school physics teachers in inspiring women in physics, particularly by recognizing them as being a “physics person.” Drawing on data from over 900 female undergraduates in physics, the article showed that the largest fraction became interested in physics careers during high school. In particular, being recognized by their physics teacher substantially increased the odds of their planning physics careers by the beginning of college. Since this article was published, questions have been directed toward us from physics teachers regarding the nature of recognition, e.g., how do we recognize a student meaningfully and what does recognition look like in the classroom? For example, one teacher wrote saying: I specifically wanted to tell you how much I appreciated this: …your closing note that not all recognition is meaningful, and that the key is high expectations for all and recognition of when [expectations are] met…I wrote in my margins on the page before, “What does this recognition actually look like?” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students enter physics classes with negative attitudes towards physics compared to the other sciences. Female students are more likely to opt out of a second higher-level physics course. Thus, the broad goal of this work is to better understand how to have the most lasting positive impact on female students’ attitudes and motivations towards learning physics after a single physics course in high school. Through longitudinal case studies of six female students using the frameworks of episodic memory and physics identity, we explore the most impactful features of students’ high school physics experiences. The data is drawn from three years of student interviews and one initial student survey. Our results indicate that the students could remember in detail and with longevity their experiences with physics causing high arousal and negative initial valence, such as teachers presenting physics knowledge in a counter-intuitive way. The students can remember the context but not the details of their experiences with physics causing low arousal and non-neutral valence, such as their teacher sharing a story about physics. Experiences that were eventually tied to positive valence had positive impacts on female students’ physics identity maintenance, such as problem solving activities where no one was left behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using experts in teaching to evaluate pre-college mathematics teachers is both time consuming and costly. This study examines the potential of letting undergraduate mathematics students perform this task, comparing their ratings of two dimensions, richness of instruction and mathematical correctness, to those previously assigned by an expert. Using 85 undergraduates of two U.S. institutions, who independently watched short videos of teachers, we found that student ratings of teachers’ correctness were a good match to the expert ratings; student ratings of richness of instruction, less so. A "halo effect" was observed in that students did not fully differentiate between richness and correctness in their ratings. Moreover, male students gave harsher ratings than did female students. Whereas undergraduates showed promise in accurately evaluating teachers of younger students, improvements in terms of rating items, attention to bias, and explicit training on the teaching dimensions to be rated should be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on peers' interest in high school biology, chemistry, and physics classes on students' STEM-related career intentions and course achievement in the U.S. Students perceive a high level of interest for the subject matter from their classmates in an interest quorum. Students are more likely to choose STEM careers who experience such an interest quorum.

Informal STEM learning experiences (ISLEs), such as participating in science, computing, and engineering clubs and camps, have been associated with the development of youth's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics interests and career aspirations. However, research on ISLEs predominantly focuses on institutional settings such as museums and science centers, which are often discursively inaccessible to youth who identify with minoritized demographic groups. Using latent class analysis, we identify five general profiles (i.e., classes) of childhood participation in ISLEs from data reported by a nationally representative sample of college students (N = 15,579). Results show that childhood participation in specific typologies of ISLEs (i.e., setting and activity type) is associated with youth's disciplinary interests at the end of high school. Participation in outdoor activities that invite observation is more often reported by female respondents and is negatively associated with interest in computing and mathematics. Participation in indoor activities that invite object manipulation is more often reported by male respondents and is positively associated with interest in computing and engineering. However, frequent participation in multiple ISLEs is positively associated with interest in "science." These results elucidate stereotypical discourses that reinforce the exclusion of minoritized students and expose critical areas needing reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the role that high school physics teachers might play in attracting female students to physics career. Topics covered include the importance of these teachers for female students' physics identity and persistence, an analysis of when these students became interested in physics careers and different sources of recognition that may have affected their choices at certain time points, and how to help female students become more empowered to continue studying physics.

In response to the demand for more STEM-certified teachers, identity has emerged as a theoretical lens for examining how candidates can be recruited into and retained in the teaching profession. This study explores the intersection between teaching identity and disciplinary identity as they relate to the development of a disciplinary teaching identity. Survey responses were collected from students in a teaching recruitment class for STEM majors, and regression models were developed to predict disciplinary teaching identity and program persistence. Findings from both models indicated that teaching identity is a strong predictor of both disciplinary teaching identity and program persistence, but disciplinary identity plays less of a role. These findings align with previous qualitative research on teacher identity development. Additionally, these findings highlight a need to engage STEM faculty in efforts to recruit students who strongly identify with STEM into the teaching profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article empirically tests a previously developed theoretical framework for mathematics identity based on students' beliefs. The study employs data from more than 9,000 college calculus students across the United States to build a robust structural equation model. While it is generally thought that students' beliefs about their own competence in mathematics directly impact their identity as a "math person," findings indicate that students' self-perceptions related to competence and performance have an indirect effect on their mathematics identity, primarily by association with students' interest and external recognition in mathematics. Thus, the model indicates that students' competence and performance beliefs are not sufficient for their mathematics identity development, and it highlights the roles of interest and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores students' self-perceptions across science subjects (biology, chemistry, and physics) by gender and underrepresented minority group membership. The data are drawn from the Persistence Research in Science and Engineering (PRiSE) project, which surveyed 7,505 students (enrolled in college English courses required for all majors) from 40 colleges and universities across the United States about their backgrounds, high school science experiences, and science attitudes. We compared the responses for three focal items on the PRiSE survey that asked students: "Do you see yourself as a biology/chemistry/physics person?" The results indicate that students' overall self-perceptions toward science are less than ideal. For many students in college, even those pursuing science-related careers, frequencies fell well below the midpoint of the scale. Consistent with other research, females had significantly lower self-perceptions toward physics, and Hispanic females tended to be the most disempowered in their views of themselves with respect to science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many students enrolled in university physics have little interest in the subject matter, a trend more pronounced in females. This study assesses students' conceptual understanding and interest during the electrochemistry unit of a physics course for nonphysics majors that was revised in light of consistently low ratings from its students. The intervention, designed to improve the tutorials in a large lecture-based physics course, improved interest in the topic for which the new tutorials were implemented. However, no effect was seen for conceptual understanding, and the gender gaps persisted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What motivates individuals to embark on graduate careers in physics and chemistry and how could these motivations impact future productivity? This study examines gender differences in such motivations and their ability to predict select future success outcomes (publications and grant funding) for physical scientists. The data were obtained as part of Project Crossover, a national study of physicists and chemists. Overall, motivations for males and females were similar. Regression results indicate that individuals who chose a graduate career in the physical sciences primarily because they enjoyed thinking about science or were encouraged by significant others were more productive in terms of primary/first- author publications and generation of grant funding than those who were motivated by factors such as academic performance or desire to impact society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the evaluation of high school biology, chemistry, and physics teachers by their students is examined according to the gender of the student and the gender of the teacher. Female teachers are rated significantly lower than male teachers by male students in all three disciplines, whereas female students underrate female teachers only in physics. Interestingly, physics is also the field that suffers the greatest lack of females and has been criticized most for its androcentric culture. The gender bias in teacher ratings persists even when accounting for academic performance, classroom experiences, and family support. Furthermore, male and female teachers in each discipline appear equally effective at preparing their students for future science study in college, suggesting that students have a discipline-specific gender bias. Such a bias may negatively impact female students and contribute to the loss of females in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed93:827–845, 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article identifies gender differences in the high school physics experiences and background of students in introductory college physics courses in the United States. It discusses the use of data from a project entitled "Factors Influencing College Science Success." The article determines how the experiences of males and females who took introductory college physics differ.

The attrition of females studying physics after high school is a growing concern to the science education community. Most undergraduate science programs require introductory physics coursework. Thus, success in introductory physics is usually necessary for students to progress to higher levels of science study. Success also influences attitudes; if females are well prepared, feel confident, and do well in introductory physics, they may be inclined to study physics further. This quantitative study using a hierarchical linear model focused on determining factors from high school physics preparation (content, pedagogy, and assessment) and the affective domain that predicted female and male performance in introductory university physics. The data analyzed came from 1973 introductory university physics surveys that included variables used as controls for student demographic and academic background characteristics. The results highlight high school physics and affective experiences that differentially predicted female and male performance. These experiences include learning requirements, long-written problems, cumulative tests/quizzes, father's encouragement, and family's belief that science leads to a better career. There were also factors that had a similar effect on female and male performance among which mathematics preparation was the overall strongest predictor of university physics performance. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed91:847–876, 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power of knowledgeable peers (in this case undergraduate learning assistants [LAs]) to scaffold learning in ways that can positively influence both cognitive and affective outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), is explored in this study. In terms of the cognitive perspective, we use a metacognitive awareness (MA) framework for which the MA indicator predicts course performance. For the affective perspective, we use a disciplinary identity (DI) framework for which the DI indicator predicts discipline‐specific persistence. A survey that included these indicators as well as students' experiences in STEM classes was administered to over 2000 students. Multiple regression models reveal student experiences (individually and socially) as predictors of MA and DI. Certain social learning experiences (e.g., explaining to others when the LA is present) were found to be more predictive of MA than individual learning experiences. This result provides evidence to suggest that collaborative environments may align with increased metacognitive processes. Social learning experiences (e.g., explaining to the LA) were also found to be positive and significant predictors of DI but with a smaller effect than for MA. Fully participating in group activities was found to be a significant and positive predictor of both outcomes. This study provides further evidence for the importance of active learning (both individually and socially) for both cognitive and affective outcomes as well as the growing role that LAs can play to enhance these outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Prior to college, many students have no experience with engineering, but some ultimately choose an engineering career. Women choose engineering at lower rates than men. This article uses critical engineering agency (CEA) to understand first-year students' attitudes and self-beliefs to predict the choice of an engineering career. Purpose/Hypothesis We investigated how first-year students' math and physics identities and students' beliefs about the ability of science to improve the world predict choice of engineering as a career and whether these beliefs differ by gender. Design/Method The data were from the Sustainability and Gender in Engineering survey distributed during fall 2011 ( N = 6,772). Structural equation modeling was used to understand first-year students' affective beliefs for predicting engineering career choice. Results Math and physics identities are important for predicting engineering choice at the beginning of college. Recognition from others and interest in a subject are positive predictors of physics and math identities. Students' performance/competence beliefs alone are negative predictors of engineering career choice but are mediated by interest and recognition from others. Student identities and agency beliefs are significant predictors of engineering career choice, explaining 20% of the variance. We also found gender differences in students' math and physics identities and agency beliefs. Conclusions This article emphasizes the importance of students' recognition beliefs and the importance of agency beliefs for women in predicting engineering career choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This retrospective cohort study characterizes how interest in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) careers changes during high school for more than 6,000 students in a representative national sample of 34 two- and four-year colleges taking mandatory college English courses. Overall, large gender differences in career plans were found, with males showing far more interest particularly in engineering, whereas females were more attracted to careers in health and medicine during their high school years. The key factor predicting STEM career interest at the end of high school was interest at the start of high school. There was an additional effect of gender, indicating both a lower retention of STEM career interest among females and a greater difficulty in attracting females to STEM fields during high school. During the high school years, the percentage of males interested in a STEM career remained stable (from 39.5 to 39.7), whereas for females it declined from 15.7 to 12.7. The students' initial specific (disciplinary) career interests were found to influence the stability of their interest in a STEM career, with those interested in physics careers at the start of high school having the highest retention in STEM. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96:411-427, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has not been well understood by high school students in the US and the topic is often connected to misconceptions, which is especially damaging since accurate understandings of the concepts are strongly predictive of intent to do something about it. We use data from a national (US) survey of first year college students to identify high school experiences which correlate with the belief that climate change is caused by human activities. In-class coverage of climate change is less predictive of belief than time spent on science homework or science-themed extracurricular activities. These correlations suggest that simply covering climate change in class may not necessarily lead to greater belief in the scientific consensus. While deeper understanding is a worthy goal, the results indicate that, when it comes to high school science education, social factors such as the process and culture of education are also important for belief in climate change. These finding aligns with previous research about college students, which suggest student activities are more strongly correlated with student viewpoints than professor beliefs. Given the potential for curricula to become politicized these finding suggests an alternative route to achieve climate change education goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling Instruction (MI), an active-learning introductory physics curriculum, has been shown to improve student academic success. Peer-to-peer interactions play a salient role in the MI classroom. Their impact on student interest and self-efficacy - preeminent constructs of various career theories - has not been thoroughly explored. Our examination of three undergraduate MI courses (N = 221) revealed a decrease in students’ physics self-efficacy, physics interest, and general science interest. We found a positive link from physics interest to self-efficacy, and a negative relationship between science interest and self-efficacy. We tested structural equation models confirming that student interactions make positive contributions to self-efficacy. This study frames students’ classroom interactions within broader career theory frameworks and suggests nuanced considerations regarding interest and self-efficacy constructs in the context of undergraduate active-learning science courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes beliefs related to human-caused climate change and predictors of these beliefs among students intending to pursue civil engineering. Based on a nationally distributed survey to first-year college engineering students (n = 937) in the United States, civil engineering students are less likely than others to believe that climate change is caused by humans. One reason this is a problem is because civil engineering students who do not believe in human-caused climate change are less likely to want to address climate change in their careers. Education has potential to address this gap in knowledge. For example, coverage of topics related to climate change in high school courses is a strong predictor for belief in anthropogenic climate change. For educators working with college students who may not believe in anthropogenic climate change, simply covering the topic can increase students' awareness, which would seem to lead them to more desire to address climate change issues, which is a necessity for realizing more-sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the first National study on high school preparation for college calculus success, the Factors Influencing College Success in Mathematics (FICSMath) project, this article connects student high school instructional experiences to college calculus performance. The findings reported here reveal that students were better prepared for college calculus success by high school instructional experiences that emphasized mathematical definitions, vocabulary, reasoning, functions, and hands-on activities. These findings serve to inform high school mathematics teachers about promising instructional practices. They can also inform teacher education programs about how to better prepare secondary mathematics educators to discuss conceptual understanding on the widely used Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning more about the career outcome expectations of students interested in civil engineering can help identify gaps between their expectations and sustainability challenges. The authors used data from two national surveys to compare students interested in civil engineering and other engineering disciplines. Those interested in civil engineering are more likely to address such sustainability topics as environmental degradation, water supply, and climate change. However, civil engineering students are less likely to have outcome expectations related to disease and saving lives. Particularly, female students interested in civil engineering have similar expectations to males but also hope to address poverty and opportunities for women and minorities. The gaps in outcome expectations related to disease and saving lives are troubling for a profession that is so instrumental in providing, for example, clean water and safe shelter. Showing the connection between societal needs and civil engineering may broaden participation, including among underrepresented female students. Recruiting more undergraduates using these outcome expectations would bring sorely needed new ideas and ways of thinking to help civil engineering respond to sustainability challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions intended to identify design thinking traits were developed and tested on a national survey distributed to U.S. college students. By applying exploratory factor analyses and regression models to the survey data, nine of the questions were mapped to five related characteristics of design thinking: collaboration, experimentalism, optimism, feedback-seeking, and integrative thinking. Survey questions alone cannot fully identify the qualitative traits of design thinkers, but these nine questions do enable basic exploration of compelling relationships between design thinking traits and other variables. Our analyses found design thinking traits correlated with higher achievement; with a desire for careers helping others and solving societal problems; and with recognition of and desire to address sustainability obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions collect information about students for countless reasons: analyzing demographics, evaluating programs, recruiting top students, and measuring learning outcomes, among others. As sustainability concerns are an increasingly central issue in many students' college selection process (Grummon 2008), there is a need to better understand students who exhibit prosustainability attitudes and behaviors-those students most interested in sustainability (MIS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Sustainability is increasingly a vital consideration for engineers. Improved understanding of how attention to sustainability influences student major and career choice could inform efforts to broaden participation in engineering. Purpose Two related questions guided our research. How do career outcome expectations related to sustainability predict the choice of an engineering career? Which broader sustainability-related outcomes do students perceive as related to engineering? To address both questions, we compared effects for engineering and nonengineering students while controlling for various confounding variables. Design/Method We conducted a survey to collect responses about sustainability and other variables of interest from a national sample of college students in introductory English classes. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlational analysis. Results Students who hope to address certain sustainability issues such as energy, climate change, environmental degradation, and water supply are more likely to pursue engineering. Those who hope to address other sustainability issues such as opportunities for women and minorities, poverty, and disease are less likely to do so. Students hoping to address sustainability-related outcome expectations with obvious human relevance are less likely to pursue engineering. Yet those students who perceive 'improving quality of life' and 'saving lives' as associated with engineering are more likely to pursue the profession. Conclusions Our results suggest that showing students the connection between certain sustainability issues and engineering careers could help those striving to increase and diversify participation in engineering. A broader range of engineers would likely bring new ideas and ways of thinking to engineering for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]