Interplay between physics self-efficacy, calculus transfer ability, and gender

TL;DR

This study explores how calculus transfer ability and physics self-efficacy relate to gender differences among students, revealing that while calculus skills improved, physics confidence generally declined, with women showing notable gains in transfer ability.

Contribution

It introduces an assessment framework for calculus transfer in physics and examines gender-based differences in self-efficacy and transfer ability.

Findings

Students improved in calculus transfer ability.

Most students' physics self-efficacy decreased.

Women showed larger gains in calculus transfer ability.

Abstract

We present our initial work to develop an assessment of calculus proficiency in the context of introductory physics (i.e., calculus transfer to physics), including a comparison of calculus transfer ability with physics self-efficacy and how these attributes intersect with student gender. Although students demonstrated an improvement in their calculus transfer ability, most nevertheless displayed a decrease in their physics self-efficacy. Similarly, while women consistently exhibited lower physics self-efficacy than men, women demonstrated larger gains in their proficiency with calculus transfer to physics. We also discuss future work to better evaluate the interdependence of mathematics self-efficacy, physics self-efficacy, and ability to transfer calculus to physics.