What kind of students persist in science learning in the face of academic challenges?

Science self‐schemas are students' cognitive generalizations of their selves in learning science. Students who hold contrasting science self‐schemas are hypothesized to learn consistently with their salient self‐conception in science. A survey and an experiment provided complementary evidence supporting the self‐congruent engagement hypothesis. Study 1 surveyed 329 Year 9 Australian students and classified them into three schematic groups based on their responses to questionnaire items assessing self‐knowledge defining the science‐self‐schema concept. The results showed that positive, average and negative schematics held contrasting goals, strategies, and grade aspiration congruent with their self‐conceptions when dealing with challenging science tasks. Due to the presence of a valued self, positive schematics compared to the other two groups had stronger intention to further their studies in science and follow a science career in the future. Study 2 used an experimental design to compare positive, negative and average schematics' coping responses when dealing with a difficult test in science. One hundred and one students who had completed the survey study joined Study 2. The findings confirmed the differences between these three groups. Positive and negative schematics completed the test in a way congruent to their self‐conceptions. In the absence of an elaborated self in science, average schematics had less extreme responses compared to the polarized schematic students. The results derived from two studies indicate that science self‐schemas are important identity‐based conceptions for understanding students' science aspiration and coping responses to challenge science.