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Students’ sense of belonging in introductory physics course for bioscience majors predicts their grade

Sonja Cwik and Chandralekha Singh
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 18, 010139 – Published 31 May 2022
Physics logo See Research News: Keeping Women in Physics is More Than a Numbers Game

Abstract

Student sense of belonging in physics classes may not only play a key role in shaping course outcomes but also influence student persistence and future career aspirations. Prior research has shown that women have a lower sense of belonging than men in calculus-based introductory physics courses. However, prior research has generally not investigated students’ sense of belonging in introductory physics courses in which women are not underrepresented. We administered a validated survey to investigate the sense of belonging of 814 students and how it predicts student grades in a mandatory introductory physics course primarily for bioscience majors. In particular, we investigated how students’ sense of belonging predicts female and male students’ grade at the end of the mandatory physics course for bioscience majors using structural equation modeling. We found that women had a lower sense of belonging and grade than men in this course and that the students’ sense of belonging played a major role in predicting students’ grade in the course. In addition, while men’s sense of belonging significantly increased from the beginning to the end of the physics course, women’s sense of belonging did not significantly change by the end of the course.

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  • Received 11 October 2021
  • Accepted 16 March 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.010139

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics Education Research

Research News

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Keeping Women in Physics is More Than a Numbers Game

Published 31 May 2022

In intro-to-physics classes containing more women than men, women still feel out of place, implying that more needs to be done to make physics classrooms feel inclusive.

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Authors & Affiliations

Sonja Cwik and Chandralekha Singh

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA

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Vol. 18, Iss. 1 — January - June 2022

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