Physics social identity, the gender gap and approaches to learning

Gender differences in undergraduate university physics outcomes have received a great deal of recent attention, but the underlying mechanisms are still under debate. Various mechanisms have been explored, amongst others gender socialization, peer group effects, self-efficacy, stereotype threat and social identity threat. This project takes an interdisciplinary approach, integrating local expertise in social and educational psychology and in physics.
The PhD project brings together two well-established lines of research: (1) the gender gap in physics incorporating models of physics identity, sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and performance (Hazari, Sonnert, Sadler, & Shanahan, 2010), and (2) social identity models incorporating discipline identity, peer norms, with learning-enhancing and learning-undermining approaches (Mavor, Platow, & Bizumic, 2017). The project will investigate the possible mediating role of approaches to learning as a mechanism through which gender identity threats may operate to impact on grades.
The project will build on recent work showing that higher levels of discipline identification are associated with more self-reported deep learning and reduced surface learning (Smyth, Mavor, Platow, Grace, & Reynolds, 2015). This is moderated by an effect of peer norms, where the implications of identity for deep learning is enhanced or undermined by discipline peer norms. In addition, some recent pilot work by one of the supervisors showed that identity threat predicted learning undermining behaviours (such as procrastination and academic self-handicapping) as well as undermining the positive effect of discipline identity on deep learning. Applying this finding to gender-based identity threats represents a novel and potentially fruitful direction for this project. This also raises an intriguing possibility that interventions designed to promote physics identity to address the gender gap could have a positive effect on academic performance.
The project will explore the causal links between self-reported physics identity and learning strategies, the effect of peer norms on learning behaviour, and investigate the effect of an intervention to enhance physics identity on students’ learning strategies and academic performance. The project will be based around a multi-year, multi-cohort study, with data separated by gender to investigate gender-specific effects. Survey data will be complemented by targeted focus groups with students at particular transition points in the physics programme.
The project will build expertise in both quantitative analysis of survey data via generalized linear modelling as well as qualitative analysis of interview data. This project is jointly supervised by faculty in Psychology and in Physics.
We particularly welcome applications from graduates in physics, psychology or other STEM subjects with strong maths skills and interest in social identity theory.