Framework for Unpacking Students' Mindsets in Physics by Gender

Physics is a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics discipline in which women are severely underrepresented. Prior work has identified motivation-based explanations for low participation and retention rates of women in physics. Among various motivational factors, intelligence mindsets (i.e., having fixed or growth mindsets) have been rarely examined in the context of physics. Because physics is commonly associated with requiring brilliance to be successful, many students are likely to hold fixed mindset views for physics, which can be especially detrimental for students from underrepresented groups. We examined physics mindset views of 755 engineering and physical-science majors enrolled in calculus-based Physics 1 to understand separable aspects of such views, how these views varied by gender or sex (i.e., for female versus male students), and whether they predicted physics course grade. Multidimensional scaling analyses revealed four different mindset views that are relatively independently held beliefs. Multiple regression analyses showed that physics course grade is most closely associated with whether students deny or accept a fixed mindset view about themselves in particular. One particular view also had the largest gender difference. Therefore, understanding why students hold different mindset views and designing appropriate interventions for physics courses are important areas to consider in efforts seeking to improve outcomes in physics for diverse student groups.