Are inequities in self-efficacy a systemic feature of physics education?

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that physics education systematically diminishes female students' self-efficacy more than in other STEM subjects, across both high school and college settings, highlighting a persistent gender inequity.

Contribution

It extends prior research by analyzing a large, representative high school dataset to confirm systemic gender disparities in physics self-efficacy across diverse educational levels.

Findings

Large gender gap in physics self-efficacy in high school and college

Gender difference in self-efficacy is specific to physics, not other STEM courses

Physics instruction may contribute to systemic gender inequities

Abstract

There is consistent and growing evidence that physics instruction disproportionately harms female students' self-efficacy, their beliefs about their ability to learn and do physics. This harm is problematic because self-efficacy supports student learning and persistence. Nissen and Shemwell (PhysRevPER, 12, 2016) investigated this harm using an in-the-moment measure of student's self-efficacy states, which are dynamic judgments of one's ability to succeed in the activity at hand. Their results indicated that female students experienced much lower self-efficacy states in physics than male students did, and that this gender difference did not occur in other STEM courses. A limitation of their study was that it only investigated a single college physics course. In order to further inform the generalizability of this phenomenon I analyzed a large data set of 35,464 experiences from 4,816 students at 33 secondary schools collected between 1993 and 1997 that was designed to be representative of high school students' experiences. Results confirmed that there was a large gender difference in self-efficacy states in high school physics courses and not in any other courses. The identification of this phenomenon in two very different settings indicates that physics instruction systemically harms female students' belief in their ability to learn and do physics.