Using a belonging and intelligence mindset intervention to promote inclusivity in undergraduate physics courses

Instructors often focus on content and pedagogical approaches to improve student engagement and learning in physics courses. However, students’ motivational characteristics can also play an important role in their engagement and success in physics. For example, students’ sense of belonging in a physics class, their self-efficacy, and views about whether intelligence in physics is “fixed” or “malleable” can affect engagement and learning. These types of concerns can especially impact the learning outcomes of women and other underrepresented students in physics classes and stereotype threats can exacerbate these issues while learning physics. We will discuss prior research studies that show how different types of interventions (e.g., social belonging and growth mindset) have improved the motivation and learning of all students, especially women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields and how these interventions can be adapted and implemented in physics classes. We will also describe a belonging and growth mindset intervention that we have incorporated in introductory physics courses and findings from the intervention. The types of interventions discussed in this workshop are short, requiring less than one hour of regular class or recitation time even though they have the potential to impact student outcomes significantly—especially for women and other underrepresented students in physics classes.