Abstract
Research examining high school and undergraduate students has demonstrated the importance of identity formation for students’ confidence, retention, and aspirations in science. While we know some of the key predictors of science identity formation among these populations, relatively little work has looked at these issues among graduate students. The study presented here utilizes data from a survey of over 1,300 graduate students in the United States in five disciplines: biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and sociology. A structural equation model is estimated to assess the demographic, experiential, and disciplinary correlates of graduate student identification with science and, separately, identification with their discipline. The analysis finds that, relative to men, women have weaker identification with science but do not differ in the strength of their identification with their discipline. Experiences, such as the quality of students’ relationship with their advisor and publishing research, are positively associated with the strength of their science and disciplinary identity. Students in psychology and sociology have weaker identification with science relative to biology students, while sociology students also have weaker identification with their discipline.
Highlights
Science education, at the graduate level, understandably focuses on the transmission of knowledge and skills relevant to conducting scientific research
Given the data used in this study, we expect that graduate students in psychology and sociology will have weaker identification with science when compared to students in biology, physics, and chemistry
The means for the three indicators of identification with science all increase slightly between the unweighted and weighted means. This suggests that these measures are somewhat higher among the larger disciplines in the analysis than in the smaller disciplines
Summary
At the graduate level, understandably focuses on the transmission of knowledge and skills relevant to conducting scientific research. In this study we utilize data from an original survey of graduate students in five disciplines representing natural and social sciences to assess the predictors of students’ strength of identification with science.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.