The additional benefit of working in same-gender groups on students' self-efficacy in introductory physics

Author / Creator

PERC SM20 (2020)

Conferences

PERC SM20 Poster Session II (2020)

Available as

Online

Summary

We describe a study in which a validated motivational survey was used to investigate the effect of working in mixed or same-gender groups on physics self-efficacy and "peer effect on self-efficacy"...

We describe a study in which a validated motivational survey was used to investigate the effect of working in mixed or same-gender groups on physics self-efficacy and "peer effect on self-efficacy" in a calculus-based introductory physics course in which women are severely underrepresented. Compared to those who mostly worked alone, those who worked in a group, in general, reported that their peers increased their physics self-efficacy. Moreover, for both women and men, working in same-gender groups resulted in a "protective effect" for those who reported low physics self-efficacy in that students in same gender groups with low and high self-efficacy had smaller variations in their peer effect on self-efficacy scores than those who worked in mixed gender groups. While these effects held for both men and women, the average scores on physics self-efficacy, sense of belonging and peer effect on self-efficacy were higher for men in each of these categories.

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