Undergraduate researchers Lily Baker and Zoe Abel are working with me to investigate science identity among Vanderbilt undergraduates, specifically within students who are learning assistants in various science courses. We are asking three related questions:
1) How do these students assess their science identity? That is, to what degree do they consider themselves a "science person", and does that capture their sense of science identity?
2) What experiences have positively contributed to their science identity?
3) What experiences have had a negative impact on their science identity?
Because all of the students in the study are LAs in science courses, they share characteristics that have previously been found to make up science identity: scientific knowledge, ability to "perform" that knowledge in public settings (aka competence), and recognition by important others (Carlone and Johnson, 2007). Even within this population, however, we see significant and meaningful variation in students' science identity. We think these differences will allow us to develop a more nuanced understanding of how science identity develops among science-committed students.Â