Exploring Ontario grade ten students' decisions to select or reject school physics

Declining science enrolment, with the greatest decline in physics, is well documented and has generated concern surrounding students' future abilities to function in an increasingly scientific and technologyfocused society. In an attempt to understand why students select or reject physics, a multiphase qualitative phenomenological study was designed, with the following questions: (a) Why do students select or reject physics courses? (b) What role does physics identity play in student course selection? (c) What other factors, extrinsic or intrinsic, affect their choices to pursue physics? Questionnaire, interview, focus group and student drawing data indicate that students select senior level physics when it is required for further studies in university, but they reject physics when it is not required based on their belief that physics is a difficult math-reliant subject, they do not identify with physics, and they are unsure about what physics is and what they would learn in a physics course. Recommendations include teaching physics in a context that aligns with students' interests, and teaching physics to promote a positive physics student identity.