Self-efficacy and perceived recognition by peers, instructors, and teaching assistants in physics predict bioscience majors’ science identity

Prior research shows that in a particular science domain, students’ identity depends on their self-efficacy, perceived recognition by others, and their interest in that domain. In this study, we investigated how the end of the semester physics self-efficacy and perceived recognition by others for bioscience majors enrolled in the second semester of a traditionally taught mandatory physics course sequence predict their overall science identity aligned with their disciplinary major. We find that bioscience majors’ physics self-efficacy and perceived recognition not only predict their physics identity but also their overall science identity. These relations between physics self-efficacy and perceived recognition and the overall science identity of bioscience majors suggest interdisciplinary connections that may provide additional pathways for boosting students’ science identity, e.g., by enhancing their self-efficacy and perceived recognition in their other mandatory courses such as physics. We also find that on average, women majoring in bioscience had lower physics self-efficacy, perceived recognition, physics identity, and overall science identity than men even though women were not underrepresented in the physics course. One possible reason is that the societal stereotypes and biases pertaining to who can excel in physics can impact women who are constantly exposed to them throughout their life.