Poster #29 - A Typology of Student Dispositions in Science and Math

• In Event: 35.081 - MTCC Poster Session Eight
  In Poster Session: 35.081-3 - Science Teaching and Learning SIG Poster Session

Abstract

An increasingly common line of inquiry in science and mathematics education research is into students’ dispositions (interest, self-efficacy, identity, and utility) toward these two subjects and related careers. An important shortcoming of this research is that they are intertwined and yet often are studied separately. We build on and extend Social Cognitive Theory to hypothesize that identity develops as a result of self-efficacy, interest, and utility. This study made use of a unique dataset, the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and latent class analysis to test our hypothesis. We found five classes of students that are not well-predicted by student background characteristics, and that are significantly related to student high school and postsecondary outcomes.

Authors

• Virginia Walker Snodgrass Rangel, University of Houston

• Victoria Doan, University of Houston

• Alex J. Bowers, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Luronne Vaval, Teachers College, Columbia University