Development of Field Belonging Within Gateway Physics Courses: Exploring the Role of Gender and Motives

• In Event: Examining Motivation Among Historically Minoritized Groups in STEM

Abstract

Students’ sense of belonging is one important factor driving persistence. To identify ways to support women’s sense of belonging in physics, the current study used a diverse undergraduate student sample (N=1207, 39% female) in a gateway physics course to investigate whether holding prosocial and agentic career motives is positively related to the development of field belonging. Using latent change score models, we found that both male and female students’ sense of belonging at the start of their course was enhanced for students holding strong prosocial or agentic motives. The more extreme decline in females’ sense of belonging across the gateway course was minimized for females who held strong prosocial or agentic motives, but not for males. Implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Anna-Lena Dicke, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Yannan Gao, NYU Shanghai
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nayssan Safavian, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jacquelynne S. Eccles, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author