Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4542-1812

Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Committee Chair

John Stewart

Committee Member

Paul Miller

Committee Member

Weichao Tu

Committee Member

Jake Follmer

Abstract

Since the 1980s, Physics Education Research (PER) has explored the factors influencing students' success in college. This manuscript reports three different studies to understand the impact of different factors on students' college physics achievement. The first study explored several academic (high school physics preparation, high school preparation, math readiness, and ACT or SAT verbal and mathematics scores) and non-cognitive (self-efficacy, personality, belonging, grade expectation, and demographic) factors using correlation and linear regression analysis to understand their relation to students' physics conceptual understanding measured by the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE). High school preparation was found to be the most important factor in predicting conceptual understanding; the type of physics classes taken in high school, the performance in those classes, students' self-efficacy, and their grade expectations had a substantial relation to conceptual understanding.

The second study investigated two factor structures suggested by the Adams et al. and Douglas et al. for the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) instrument using correlation analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). A new subscale model for the instrument based was proposed. The original eight-factor model of Adams et al. could not be supported by factor analysis. The factor structure suggested by Douglas et al. did not have good model fit parameters. A four-subscale model was developed to provide the good model fit.

The third study investigated the relations between the five-factor model of personality (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness), self-efficacy toward physics and mathematics, and course outcomes in university physics and mathematics classes. Women reported significantly higher neuroticism in all classes and significantly higher conscientiousness in some classes while men reported higher self-efficacy. Conscientiousness and neuroticism mediated the relation of gender to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy mediated the relation of conscientiousness to course grades in all classes.

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