Determining strategies that predict physics identity: Emphasizing recognition and interest

Abstract

Although the number of students earning bachelor’s degrees in physics has increased, the percent- age of those degrees earned by women has not increased for more than 10 years. We use a physics identity framework to understand the factors that may impact physics career choice. Physics iden- tity consists of three dimensions: recognition (perception of recognition by others), interest (desire to learn more), and performance/competence (perception of ability to understand). Our previous work has shown that recognition and interest are more significant predictors of physics career choice than performance/competence, and that women may require more recognition than men in order to choose physics careers. Therefore, teaching strategies that specifically target recognition and interest should be identified. Using data from a survey administered to a nationally representative sample of college students, we use regression models to determine which teaching strategies predict recognition and which strategies predict interest.