Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition

This study is focused on student recognition beliefs as related to a role identity development. More specifically, using the theoretical framework of physics identity and emotional scaffolding, we investigate the impact of two types of recognizing strategies, i.e., explicit (ER) and implicit recogni...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jianlan Wang, Zahra Hazari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2018-09-01
Series:Physical Review Physics Education Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020111
id doaj-154cb00c381441f0af7ed52d7f6d5c75
record_format Article
spelling doaj-154cb00c381441f0af7ed52d7f6d5c752020-11-24T22:36:36ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Physics Education Research2469-98962018-09-0114202011110.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020111Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognitionJianlan WangZahra HazariThis study is focused on student recognition beliefs as related to a role identity development. More specifically, using the theoretical framework of physics identity and emotional scaffolding, we investigate the impact of two types of recognizing strategies, i.e., explicit (ER) and implicit recognizing (IR), on high school students’ sense of recognition and physics identity. ER is teachers directly conveying their acknowledgment of students’ qualities or abilities, such as acknowledging good work and expressing faith in student ability, and IR is teachers indirectly acknowledging students’ qualities or abilities via assigning them a position or a task that demands those qualities or abilities, such as valuing student opinions and assigning a challenging task. Through six longitudinal surveys for one year, we trace the physics identity development of 134 students from three high school physics classes as well as aspects related to physics identity construction including interest, competence beliefs, and sense of recognition. The patterns suggest that the recognizing strategies used by the teachers relate to a positive shift in students’ sense of recognition, which in turn facilitates the development of a physics identity. The postinterviews with six students from the three classes reveal possible mechanisms by which ER and IR strategies are internalized by students. Our findings indicate that the synergy with ER and IR strategies used as well as the nature of the activities (i.e., attainable success) are critical features of effective teacher recognition that can be internalized by the student.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020111
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Jianlan Wang
Zahra Hazari
spellingShingle Jianlan Wang
Zahra Hazari
Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition
Physical Review Physics Education Research
author_facet Jianlan Wang
Zahra Hazari
author_sort Jianlan Wang
title Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition
title_short Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition
title_full Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition
title_fullStr Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition
title_full_unstemmed Promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition
title_sort promoting high school students’ physics identity through explicit and implicit recognition
publisher American Physical Society
series Physical Review Physics Education Research
issn 2469-9896
publishDate 2018-09-01
description This study is focused on student recognition beliefs as related to a role identity development. More specifically, using the theoretical framework of physics identity and emotional scaffolding, we investigate the impact of two types of recognizing strategies, i.e., explicit (ER) and implicit recognizing (IR), on high school students’ sense of recognition and physics identity. ER is teachers directly conveying their acknowledgment of students’ qualities or abilities, such as acknowledging good work and expressing faith in student ability, and IR is teachers indirectly acknowledging students’ qualities or abilities via assigning them a position or a task that demands those qualities or abilities, such as valuing student opinions and assigning a challenging task. Through six longitudinal surveys for one year, we trace the physics identity development of 134 students from three high school physics classes as well as aspects related to physics identity construction including interest, competence beliefs, and sense of recognition. The patterns suggest that the recognizing strategies used by the teachers relate to a positive shift in students’ sense of recognition, which in turn facilitates the development of a physics identity. The postinterviews with six students from the three classes reveal possible mechanisms by which ER and IR strategies are internalized by students. Our findings indicate that the synergy with ER and IR strategies used as well as the nature of the activities (i.e., attainable success) are critical features of effective teacher recognition that can be internalized by the student.
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020111
work_keys_str_mv AT jianlanwang promotinghighschoolstudentsphysicsidentitythroughexplicitandimplicitrecognition
AT zahrahazari promotinghighschoolstudentsphysicsidentitythroughexplicitandimplicitrecognition
_version_ 1716495411151110144