Disentangling the Impacts of Self-Efficacy, Mindset Beliefs, and Surface Learning in Historically Marginalized Chemistry Students

Attitudes─beliefs and emotions regarding learning─hold important implications for downstream academic performance. Although studies often focus on isolated attitudes, attitudes are meaningfully interconnected and collectively influence achievement. Moreover, disparities in these attitudes are often associated with barriers in entering the STEM workforce for students identifying as women, first-generation, low-income, or racially and ethnically marginalized. Latent means modeling and structural equation modeling were used to characterize these self-reported attitudes and their collective relationship with exam performance in a sample of 516 undergraduate students taking general chemistry. Results revealed attitudinal disparities impacting course grade in self-efficacy as a result of mastery and vicarious experiences as well as meaningful learning. These disparities, interpreted as outcomes of systemic educational oppression, were most pronounced among women and first-generation students. Interestingly, educational debts in course grade, defined as the cumulative educational advantage owed to marginalized students, were two to three times larger for first-generation students, compared to women. Findings from structural equation modeling indicate that growth mindset had minimal impact on improving academic performance compared to more proximal attitudes such as self-efficacy, aligning with findings from studies outside the context of college chemistry. Further examination of these relationships among attitudes and achievement is needed to understand how marginalized students can be best supported in chemistry classrooms.