This paper investigates the impact of stereotype threat on young women’s academic achievement in high school physics classes. Stereotype threat is the reinforcement of a negative stereotype. Results show that, although females underperformed when exposed to explicit and implicit stereotype threat conditions, their performance was identical to that of males when stereotypes were nullified.
This study sought to understand what motivates students at the high school and early college level to choose physics. It explored students’ expectations of their study of physics and their priorities for future careers. The researchers intended to contribute strategies to increase the number of females who complete university physics degrees. They also hoped to show that a wider range of perspectives needs to be represented among physics practitioners.
This paper by Mujtaba and Reiss explores tendencies in girls’ and boys’ motivations, attitudes, and perceptions toward studying physics after age 16. Findings suggest that girls who want to continue studying physics understand the material and social benefits it affords. They are also more competitive than other students. However, in general, they have less confidence in their abilities than boys.
What keeps an individual interested and motivates long-term engagement in a practice? This Azevedo article presents a grounded theory of long-term, self-motivated participation based on data gathered through an ethnography of hobbyists’ participation in model rocketry. The author emphasizes that long-term engagement depends on the connection of the activity to the participant’s “larger life.”
Annotated, integrated, illustrated practical instructions result in higher levels of performance on task; lower completion time, task difficulty, and perceived cognitive load; higher relative efficiency score and post-test scores than the conventional instructions; and makes practical work instructions easier to understand for students with no prior knowledge of the subject matter.
This study reports on how high school students use scientifically correct language to articulate the concept of ‘force’. Although the analysis is somewhat complex, the importance of this study is its research of how the students engage with scientific concepts and language, and moreover, how they use and apply it.
The formal introduction of learners to scientific phenomena is accompanied by the need to reconcile what they are being taught in classrooms with their informal or pre-existing conceptualizations of the same phenomena. Reconciled formal and informal conceptualizations represent what the authors of this study refer to as “conceptual continuity,” which, they argue, is an important asset for science educators seeking to support students’ conceptual development. In this paper, authors studied the ways in which high-school baseball players expressed their understanding of how curveballs curve using
This Stocklmayer, Rennie, and Gilbert article outlines current challenges in preparing youth to go into science careers and to be scientifically literate citizens. The authors suggest creating partnerships between informal and formal education to address these challenges in school.