Despite the projected growth of computer and information technology occupations, many
computing students fail to graduate. Studying students’ self-beliefs is one way to understand
persistence in a school setting. This paper explores how students' disciplinary identity subconstructs including competence/performance, recognition, interest, and sense of belonging contribute to academic persistence. A survey of 1,640 students as part of an NSF grant was conducted at three South Florida metropolitan public universities. A quantitative analysis was performed which included a structural equation model (SEM) and a multigroup SEM. The study examined different groups of students such as male versus female, and freshman versus senior students. Results suggest identity sub-constructs contribute differently to academic persistence among freshman and senior students; however, no significant differences were found between male and female students. The findings, such as the significance of particular aspects of computing identity on academic persistence, can have implications for educators and college administration.
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The context dependence of physics identity: Examining the role of performance/competence, recognition, interest, and sense of belonging for lower and upper female physics undergraduates
While there is a growing body of work that examines disciplinary identity development, unlike qualitative work in this area, quantitative research has not fully incorporated the importance of different contexts, nor has it uniquely focused on underrepresented groups (in this case, women in physics). This study examines how the constructs posited by prior work as important for physics identity, as well as an additional theorized construct, may interrelate and affect female students' physics identity differently depending on the context. Context in this study refers to two different experiential levels in college. The constructs examined include performance/competence, recognition, and interest, as well as sense of belonging. In particular, we used structural equation modeling to examine the effect that these constructs have on the physics identity of two groups of female physics undergraduates: first year students and senior year students. The results reveal that the relationship of the theorized constructs with physics identity vary between the two groups as well as compared to prior research with broad college student populations (not just physics majors). Unlike broad college student populations, for our sample of female physics undergraduates, interest did not have a direct effect on physics identity while sense of belonging was significant only for senior year students. These results exemplify the importance of examining context or different types of student experiences when studying disciplinary identity development rather than generalizing previous frameworks to all contexts.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10378198
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Research in Science Teaching
- Volume:
- 57
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 0022-4308
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1583-1607
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Despite the projected growth of computer and information technology occupations, many computing students fail to graduate. Studying students’ self-beliefs is one way to understand persistence in a school setting. This paper explores how students' disciplinary identity subconstructs including competence/performance, recognition, interest, and sense of belonging contribute to academic persistence. A survey of 1,640 students as part of an NSF grant was conducted at three South Florida metropolitan public universities. A quantitative analysis was performed which included a structural equation model (SEM) and a multigroup SEM. The study examined different groups of students such as male versus female, and freshman versus senior students. Results suggest identity sub-constructs contribute differently to academic persistence among freshman and senior students; however, no significant differences were found between male and female students. The findings, such as the significance of particular aspects of computing identity on academic persistence, can have implications for educators and college administration.more » « less
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Despite the projected growth of computer and information technology occupations, many computing students fail to graduate. Studying students’ self-beliefs is one way to understand persistence in a school setting. This paper explores how students' disciplinary identity subconstructs including competence/performance, recognition, interest, and sense of belonging contribute to academic persistence. A survey of 1,640 students as part of an NSF grant was conducted at three South Florida metropolitan public universities. A quantitative analysis was performed which included a structural equation model (SEM) and a multigroup SEM. The study examined different groups of students such as male versus female, and freshman versus senior students. Results suggest identity sub-constructs contribute differently to academic persistence among freshman and senior students; however, no significant differences were found between male and female students. The findings, such as the significance of particular aspects of computing identity on academic persistence, can have implications for educators and college administration.more » « less
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