Perceived irrelevance and achievement goals: Two mindset variables within attitudinal experiences of life science majors in introductory physics

Abstract

This paper is a follow-up to a previous study, in which students (predominately life science majors) were found to self-express achievement goals with regard to a prelab problem-solving exercise in an algebra-based introductory physics course. In this paper, the same sampled population was also asked in the same feedback survey to discuss what portion or portions of the course were relevant to their respective choices of major; in responding, students expressed another aspect of mindset, namely, perceived relevance of the course to their majors. We primarily investigate the difference between 50 students who perceived no relevance of introductory physics to their major and 168 students who perceived some form of relevance. The primary finding was that students who perceive relevance will experience more expertlike shifts than students who do not. In particular, the attitudinal survey’s item clusters that pertain to personal interest and real-world connections appear to show the strongest effect. Further examination showed that biology majors and health science majors (two distinctive subpopulations of life science majors) show similar pre-post trends for relevance vs irrelevance perceptions, whereas students with a performance achievement goal appeared to bifurcate between a novicelike shift for perceived irrelevance and no attitudinal shift from pre to post for perceived relevance.