期刊名称：Physical Review ST Physics Education Research
电子版ISSN：1554-9178
出版年度：2010
卷号：6
期号：1
页码：1-9
DOI：10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.010107
出版社：American Physical Society
摘要：An individual’s motivational orientation serves as a drive to action and can influence their career success. This study examines how goal orientation toward the pursuit of a graduate degree in physics and chemistry influences later success outcomes of practicing physicists and chemists. Two main categories of goal orientation are examined in this paper: performance orientation or motivation to demonstrate one’s ability or performance to others, and learning orientation or motivation through the desire to learn about a topic. The data were obtained as part of Project Crossover, a mixed-methods study which focused on studying the transition from graduate student to scientist in the physical sciences and included a survey of members of two national professional physical science organizations. Using regression analysis on data from 2353 physicists and chemists, results indicate that physicists and chemists who reported a learning orientation as their motivation for going to graduate school were more productive, in terms of total career primary and/or first-author publications and grant funding, than those reporting a performance orientation. Furthermore, given equal salary, learning -oriented individuals produced more primary and/or first-author publications than their nonlearning oriented counterparts.
