Psychological Patterns in Chemistry Self-Concept: Relations with Gender and Culture

Abstract

Knowledge about chemistry self-concepts of secondary school students is still limited although it could help to better understand students’ achievement and career choices. The present article explores three aspects of chemistry self-concepts of secondary school students in Germany: the relations of chemistry self-concept with (i) gender and cultural background, (ii) learning goal orientations in chemistry, and (iii) the perceptions of linguistic abilities and the perception of the social context of chemistry class. Regarding (i), literature suggested that boys and students belonging to the dominant ethnic groups would have stronger self-concepts than girls and students belonging to non-dominant ethnic groups. Contrary to our expectations, the present study did not show significant effects for gender and ethnic background. Rather, the study reveals an interaction effect: boys without migration background tend to score higher than girls. In the group of students with a Turkish migration background, this relation is inversed: girls tend to hold stronger chemistry self-concepts than boys. Possible reasons for this, as well as implications for research and chemistry teaching, are discussed. Moreover, regarding (ii) and (iii), the study shows that chemistry self-concept seems to be closely related to learning goal orientations, the perception of the relationship with the chemistry teacher, and the perception of abilities in chemistry language. This underlines the importance of chemistry self-concept for learning processes.