  Students' self-efficacy, interest, and perceived recognition from others have
been shown to be very important for the development of their identity in a
given field, which is a critical predictor of students' career decisions. Prior
research suggests that students' self-efficacy and interest play an important
role in their performance and persistence in STEM fields. However, very little
has been investigated about the role of perceived recognition and validation by
instructors on students' self-efficacy and interest. Moreover, prior
quantitative studies show that women often report a lower level of physics
perceived recognition, self-efficacy and interest. In this study, we analyzed
data from individual interviews with 38 female students to investigate their
learning experiences in physics courses in order to obtain a qualitative
understanding of the factors that shape their self-efficacy and interest. We
find that female students' negative and positive perceived recognition from
instructors and teaching assistants (TAs) greatly influenced their
self-efficacy and interest and even impacted their desire to persist in STEM
majors. We categorize different types of perceived recognition that women
reported in our interviews and how they influenced them. For example, many
women reported that they felt belittled for their questions or efforts in
physics courses, which often negatively influenced their self-efficacy. These
findings can help physics educators develop better ways to interact with
students in order to provide positive recognition and validation, such as
acknowledging students' efforts and questions, expressing faith in students'
ability to excel, and being careful not to give unintended messages to
students. Our research also suggests that it is important for instructors/TAs
to note that it is not their intentions that matter but the impact they are
having on their students.
