INVESTIGATING UNDERGRADUATE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ IDENTIFICATION WITH PHYSICS THROUGH STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING

Abstract

The disciplinary identity framework has been increasingly used to investigate students' intentions to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related careers. However, much less is known about whether groups of students with different career orientations towards a particular discipline differ in their disciplinary identity. Using physics as a relevant context, the aim of this study was to investigate the validity of an identity framework that includes the following dimensions: identity, interest, recognition and self-efficacy. The analysis was based on a Likert-scale survey conducted online among N = 1135 (female students = 479) Italian high school and undergraduate students, divided into four groups: high school students participating in generic extracurricular vocational activities; high school students participating in specific extracurricular vocational activities focused on physics contents; first-year computer science and biomedical engineering students; first-year undergraduate physics students. We used structural equation modelling to validate the physics identity framework. Differences across groups and between genders were examined by means of multigroup analysis. Results show that for high school students, the effect of self-efficacy on physics identity is fully mediated by interest and recognition. The direct effect of self-efficacy on physics identity is significant only for undergraduate students. Our results show that gender differences in the constructs of the identity model are stronger for students who chose physics as an extracurricular activity or as an undergraduate course. Thus, our results have implications for understanding the mechanism underlying the promotion of students’ identity development in physics.