Self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to succeed in learning tasks, predicts learning and success in education broadly and physics specifically. While self-efficacy increases for students in most introductory science and mathematics courses, self-efficacy consistently decreases for women in physics courses. This study used the experience…

Research has shown that girls and boys begin at equal levels of performance in mathematics and science, but that during the middle school years differences have been observed in both science achievement and science attitudes of males and females. It appears that once science becomes an option for females, they often do not select science…