The relationship between gender and academic performance in undergraduate physics students: the role of physics identity, perceived recognition, and self-efficacy

Abstract

Studies focusing on physics undergraduate students have found that women tend not to identify as strongly with physics, compared to men. Recent research has examined potential factors that influence the experience of women in physics. Several of these factors, such as students’ beliefs in their ability to complete physics-based tasks (i.e., self-efficacy) and students’ belief that others perceive them as a physicist (i.e., perceived recognition), have been associated with physics identity in the context of introductory university physics courses in the United States (US). The current study extends this previous work, surveying students at all levels of the undergraduate degree at a research-intensive university in the UK. Students were asked about their physics identity, physics self-efficacy, and the extent to which they European Journal of Physics Eur. J. Phys. 44 (2023) 025701 (18pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/aca29e * Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.