Pub Date : 2024-03-11DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010114
Jessica L. Rosenberg, Nancy Holincheck, Kathryn Fernández, Benjamin W. Dreyfus, Fardousa Wardere, Stephanie Stehle, Tiffany N. Butler
The percentage of women receiving bachelor’s degrees in physics (25%) in the U.S. lags well behind that of men, and women leave the major at higher rates. Achieving equity in physics will mean that women stay in physics at the same rates as men, but this will require changes in the culture and support structures. A strong sense of belonging can lead to higher retention rates so interventions meant to increase dimensions of physics identity (interest, recognition, performance, and competence) may increase persistence overall and increase women’s retention differentially. We describe our model in which mentorship, an understanding of career options (career conceptualization), and leadership are inputs into the development of these dimensions of physics identity. This paper includes preliminary results from a qualitative study that aims to better understand how career conceptualization, leadership, and mentorship contribute to the development of physics identity and belonging. We report results from a survey of 15 undergraduate physics students which was followed up by interviews with 5 of those students. The students were from 2 institutions: a small private liberal arts college in the midwest region of the U.S. and a large public university in the southeast region of the U.S. classified as a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI). With respect to mentorship, consistent with the existing literature, we found that it could provide critical support for students’ engagement in the physics community. Leadership experiences have not previously been positioned as an important input into identity, yet we found that they helped women in physics feel more confident, contributing to their recognition of themselves as physics people. While the data on how career conceptualization contributed to the building of identity is limited, there are some connections to recognition and competence, and it will be an interesting avenue of future exploration.
{"title":"Role of mentorship, career conceptualization, and leadership in developing women’s physics identity and belonging","authors":"Jessica L. Rosenberg, Nancy Holincheck, Kathryn Fernández, Benjamin W. Dreyfus, Fardousa Wardere, Stephanie Stehle, Tiffany N. Butler","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010114","url":null,"abstract":"The percentage of women receiving bachelor’s degrees in physics (25%) in the U.S. lags well behind that of men, and women leave the major at higher rates. Achieving equity in physics will mean that women stay in physics at the same rates as men, but this will require changes in the culture and support structures. A strong sense of belonging can lead to higher retention rates so interventions meant to increase dimensions of physics identity (interest, recognition, performance, and competence) may increase persistence overall and increase women’s retention differentially. We describe our model in which mentorship, an understanding of career options (career conceptualization), and leadership are inputs into the development of these dimensions of physics identity. This paper includes preliminary results from a qualitative study that aims to better understand how career conceptualization, leadership, and mentorship contribute to the development of physics identity and belonging. We report results from a survey of 15 undergraduate physics students which was followed up by interviews with 5 of those students. The students were from 2 institutions: a small private liberal arts college in the midwest region of the U.S. and a large public university in the southeast region of the U.S. classified as a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI). With respect to mentorship, consistent with the existing literature, we found that it could provide critical support for students’ engagement in the physics community. Leadership experiences have not previously been positioned as an important input into identity, yet we found that they helped women in physics feel more confident, contributing to their recognition of themselves as physics people. While the data on how career conceptualization contributed to the building of identity is limited, there are some connections to recognition and competence, and it will be an interesting avenue of future exploration.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140108037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-06DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010113
Rebeckah K. Fussell, Emily M. Stump, N. G. Holmes
Physics education researchers are interested in using the tools of machine learning and natural language processing to make quantitative claims from natural language and text data, such as open-ended responses to survey questions. The aspiration is that this form of machine coding may be more efficient and consistent than human coding, allowing much larger and broader datasets to be analyzed than is practical with human coders. Existing work that uses these tools, however, does not investigate norms that allow for trustworthy quantitative claims without full reliance on cross-checking with human coding, which defeats the purpose of using these automated tools. Here we propose a four-part method for making such claims with supervised natural language processing: evaluating a trained model, calculating statistical uncertainty, calculating systematic uncertainty from the trained algorithm, and calculating systematic uncertainty from novel data sources. We provide evidence for this method using data from two distinct short response survey questions with two distinct coding schemes. We also provide a real-world example of using these practices to machine code a dataset unseen by human coders. We offer recommendations to guide physics education researchers who may use machine-coding methods in the future.
{"title":"Method to assess the trustworthiness of machine coding at scale","authors":"Rebeckah K. Fussell, Emily M. Stump, N. G. Holmes","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010113","url":null,"abstract":"Physics education researchers are interested in using the tools of machine learning and natural language processing to make quantitative claims from natural language and text data, such as open-ended responses to survey questions. The aspiration is that this form of machine coding may be more efficient and consistent than human coding, allowing much larger and broader datasets to be analyzed than is practical with human coders. Existing work that uses these tools, however, does not investigate norms that allow for trustworthy quantitative claims without full reliance on cross-checking with human coding, which defeats the purpose of using these automated tools. Here we propose a four-part method for making such claims with supervised natural language processing: evaluating a trained model, calculating statistical uncertainty, calculating systematic uncertainty from the trained algorithm, and calculating systematic uncertainty from novel data sources. We provide evidence for this method using data from two distinct short response survey questions with two distinct coding schemes. We also provide a real-world example of using these practices to machine code a dataset unseen by human coders. We offer recommendations to guide physics education researchers who may use machine-coding methods in the future.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"66 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140054357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-05DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010112
Chengran Wang, Bing Wei
The notion of scientific visual literacy has been advocated in recent science curriculum reform documents and related learning outcomes are expected from students. However, few studies have been conducted to determine how it is tested in high-stakes examinations. This study utilized the Visualization Blooming Tool to examine the level of visual cognition involved in visual-based physics questions in the Senior High School Entrance Examination (SHSEE) in China. Content analysis was adopted as the research method and 12 sets of the SHSEE physics from four Chinese metropolises (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou) in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were targeted. The results indicate that although all four metropolises examined the higher-order visual cognitive skills, they placed more emphasis on the levels of apply and analyze but less on evaluate and create. Moreover, the examination items required students to interpret visual representations more often than to construct them, which may be detrimental to developing students’ scientific visual literacy. It is suggested that the examination of higher-order visual cognitive skills and encoded visual representation should be strengthened in future high-stakes physics examinations.
{"title":"Analysis of visual-based physics questions of the senior high school entrance examination in China","authors":"Chengran Wang, Bing Wei","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010112","url":null,"abstract":"The notion of scientific visual literacy has been advocated in recent science curriculum reform documents and related learning outcomes are expected from students. However, few studies have been conducted to determine how it is tested in high-stakes examinations. This study utilized the Visualization Blooming Tool to examine the level of visual cognition involved in visual-based physics questions in the Senior High School Entrance Examination (SHSEE) in China. Content analysis was adopted as the research method and 12 sets of the SHSEE physics from four Chinese metropolises (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou) in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were targeted. The results indicate that although all four metropolises examined the higher-order visual cognitive skills, they placed more emphasis on the levels of apply and analyze but less on evaluate and create. Moreover, the examination items required students to interpret visual representations more often than to construct them, which may be detrimental to developing students’ scientific visual literacy. It is suggested that the examination of higher-order visual cognitive skills and encoded visual representation should be strengthened in future high-stakes physics examinations.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140047437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-29DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010111
Liam G. McDermott, Nazeer A. Mosley, Geraldine L. Cochran
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education research and physics education research, in particular, are currently struggling with a dearth of research into understanding the experiences and identity development of neurodivergent students. In addition, an even larger gap in research exists looking into nonacademic members who have left the field and still strongly identify with their disciplinary identity. As valued members of our physics community, these colleagues provide a unique perspective as to how identity and participation are nurtured and developed, particularly among rising disabled physicists. To resolve these current issues and aid in future research, we operationalize our new Critical Disability Physics Identity framework and present results from interviews with three neurodivergent post-baccalaureate nonacademic physicists (those who have left physics and retain a strong affinity toward their identity as a physicist). As the first paper in a four-part phenomenological study into the identity development of neurodivergent physicists, we also present an analysis of each interview through a Critical Disability Physics Identity lens and discuss the implications of their Critical Disability Physics Identity development. We find that neurodivergent students experience very little outright discrimination and violence but experience structural ableism in the form of assessment that is not constructed for how neurodivergent physicists perform physics-related tasks. Additionally, we find that neurodivergent physicists seem to ground identity in having a strong interest in physics, something that is only shaken by professors and others in power being neutral toward the discrimination experienced by neurodivergent people. We find that there are very large power imbalances between professors and neurodivergent students and that only when professors and others in power are actively anti-ableist is this power imbalance remedied and neurodivergent students begin to feel that they are physicists.
{"title":"Diverging nonlocal fields: Operationalizing critical disability physics identity with neurodivergent physicists outside academia","authors":"Liam G. McDermott, Nazeer A. Mosley, Geraldine L. Cochran","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010111","url":null,"abstract":"Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education research and physics education research, in particular, are currently struggling with a dearth of research into understanding the experiences and identity development of neurodivergent students. In addition, an even larger gap in research exists looking into nonacademic members who have left the field and still strongly identify with their disciplinary identity. As valued members of our physics community, these colleagues provide a unique perspective as to how identity and participation are nurtured and developed, particularly among rising disabled physicists. To resolve these current issues and aid in future research, we operationalize our new Critical Disability Physics Identity framework and present results from interviews with three neurodivergent post-baccalaureate nonacademic physicists (those who have left physics and retain a strong affinity toward their identity as a physicist). As the first paper in a four-part phenomenological study into the identity development of neurodivergent physicists, we also present an analysis of each interview through a Critical Disability Physics Identity lens and discuss the implications of their Critical Disability Physics Identity development. We find that neurodivergent students experience very little outright discrimination and violence but experience structural ableism in the form of assessment that is not constructed for how neurodivergent physicists perform physics-related tasks. Additionally, we find that neurodivergent physicists seem to ground identity in having a strong interest in physics, something that is only shaken by professors and others in power being neutral toward the discrimination experienced by neurodivergent people. We find that there are very large power imbalances between professors and neurodivergent students and that only when professors and others in power are actively anti-ableist is this power imbalance remedied and neurodivergent students begin to feel that they are physicists.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140017889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-27DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010110
Yangqiuting Li, Eric Burkholder
In the field of physics education research, numerous studies have been dedicated to investigating the relationship between gender identity and physics learning. However, these studies have predominantly employed binary gender measurement methods, which may limit the range of research questions that can be explored and impede the discovery of crucial insights. In this study, we adapted gradational measures from prior research to investigate students’ self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny, as well as their reflected appraisal of femininity, masculinity, and androgyny (i.e., perceptions of how others perceive them) in both algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The use of gradational measures revealed significant variation in students’ self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny within the binary categories of women and men, providing new insights into gender dynamics in physics. We found that self-identified women in the calculus-based courses, where they are underrepresented, tend to perceive themselves as more masculine and less feminine than how they believe others perceive them. Similarly, students of color are also more likely than White students to perceive themselves as more masculine than they believe others perceive them. Using structural equation modeling, we found that students’ gender stigma consciousness plays an important role in mediating the effects of identifying as women and students of color on the observed discrepancies. Additionally, we found that women also exhibit a tendency to perceive themselves as more androgynous than they believe others perceive them in both algebra-based and calculus-based physics courses, and this phenomenon is also related to gender stigma consciousness. Moreover, our analyses revealed that students in the calculus-based courses tend to have a higher level of gender stigma consciousness even after controlling for gender and race. Our findings underscore the potential of gradational gender measurements in deepening our understanding of gender-related issues in physics education, shedding light on the complex interplay between students’ gender identity, perceptions from others, and their educational experiences in the field.
{"title":"Investigating students’ self-identified and reflected appraisal of femininity, masculinity, and androgyny in introductory physics courses","authors":"Yangqiuting Li, Eric Burkholder","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010110","url":null,"abstract":"In the field of physics education research, numerous studies have been dedicated to investigating the relationship between gender identity and physics learning. However, these studies have predominantly employed binary gender measurement methods, which may limit the range of research questions that can be explored and impede the discovery of crucial insights. In this study, we adapted gradational measures from prior research to investigate students’ self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny, as well as their reflected appraisal of femininity, masculinity, and androgyny (i.e., perceptions of how others perceive them) in both algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The use of gradational measures revealed significant variation in students’ self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny within the binary categories of women and men, providing new insights into gender dynamics in physics. We found that self-identified women in the calculus-based courses, where they are underrepresented, tend to perceive themselves as more masculine and less feminine than how they believe others perceive them. Similarly, students of color are also more likely than White students to perceive themselves as more masculine than they believe others perceive them. Using structural equation modeling, we found that students’ gender stigma consciousness plays an important role in mediating the effects of identifying as women and students of color on the observed discrepancies. Additionally, we found that women also exhibit a tendency to perceive themselves as more androgynous than they believe others perceive them in both algebra-based and calculus-based physics courses, and this phenomenon is also related to gender stigma consciousness. Moreover, our analyses revealed that students in the calculus-based courses tend to have a higher level of gender stigma consciousness even after controlling for gender and race. Our findings underscore the potential of gradational gender measurements in deepening our understanding of gender-related issues in physics education, shedding light on the complex interplay between students’ gender identity, perceptions from others, and their educational experiences in the field.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140003929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-23DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010109
Giulia Polverini, Bor Gregorcic
The well-known artificial intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT-4 has become able to process image data as input in October 2023. We investigated its performance on the test of understanding graphs in kinematics to inform the physics education community of the current potential of using ChatGPT in the education process, particularly on tasks that involve graphical interpretation. We found that ChatGPT, on average, performed similarly to students taking a high-school level physics course, but with important differences in the distribution of the correctness of its responses, as well as in terms of the displayed “reasoning” and “visual” abilities. While ChatGPT was very successful at proposing productive strategies for solving the tasks on the test and expressed correct reasoning in most of its responses, it had difficulties correctly “seeing” graphs. We suggest that, based on its performance, caution and a critical approach are needed if one intends to use it in the role of a tutor, a model of a student, or a tool for assisting vision-impaired persons in the context of kinematics graphs.
{"title":"Performance of ChatGPT on the test of understanding graphs in kinematics","authors":"Giulia Polverini, Bor Gregorcic","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010109","url":null,"abstract":"The well-known artificial intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT-4 has become able to process image data as input in October 2023. We investigated its performance on the test of understanding graphs in kinematics to inform the physics education community of the current potential of using ChatGPT in the education process, particularly on tasks that involve graphical interpretation. We found that ChatGPT, on average, performed similarly to students taking a high-school level physics course, but with important differences in the distribution of the correctness of its responses, as well as in terms of the displayed “reasoning” and “visual” abilities. While ChatGPT was very successful at proposing productive strategies for solving the tasks on the test and expressed correct reasoning in most of its responses, it had difficulties correctly “seeing” graphs. We suggest that, based on its performance, caution and a critical approach are needed if one intends to use it in the role of a tutor, a model of a student, or a tool for assisting vision-impaired persons in the context of kinematics graphs.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"242 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139955539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-20DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010108
Paul R. DeStefano, Ralf Widenhorn
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] This manuscript presents a case study of an introductory physics student who, during the remote learning conditions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, found inspiration within a new, open-inquiry, project-based, laboratory curriculum designed at Portland State University. The phenomenon investigated by the study subject was intriguing to both the student and the lab instructors for its unfamiliar and instructive optical effect: a ring-shaped pattern or halo created by a laser diffusely reflected in a shallow body of water. Drawing on classwork and interview responses, this study shows that the subject achieved many expected curriculum outcomes, particularly with respect to experimental design and data analysis tasks, indicating that the course’s open-inquiry structure can be effective while offering students a free choice of what to investigate in a laboratory class. Additionally, the case study shows that the halo phenomenon is pedagogically rich as it combines refraction, diffuse reflection, and total internal reflection in a nontrivial way, thereby answering calls by physics education researchers for more complex, realistic examples in geometric optics instruction. Finally, this case also highlights challenges students may experience interpreting diffuse reflection and determining the position of optical features beyond image formation, not commonly a focus of introductory physics courses, textbooks, and education research.
{"title":"Open-inquiry opens doors to intriguing optics experiments at home: A case study","authors":"Paul R. DeStefano, Ralf Widenhorn","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010108","url":null,"abstract":"[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] This manuscript presents a case study of an introductory physics student who, during the remote learning conditions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, found inspiration within a new, open-inquiry, project-based, laboratory curriculum designed at Portland State University. The phenomenon investigated by the study subject was intriguing to both the student and the lab instructors for its unfamiliar and instructive optical effect: a ring-shaped pattern or halo created by a laser diffusely reflected in a shallow body of water. Drawing on classwork and interview responses, this study shows that the subject achieved many expected curriculum outcomes, particularly with respect to experimental design and data analysis tasks, indicating that the course’s open-inquiry structure can be effective while offering students a free choice of what to investigate in a laboratory class. Additionally, the case study shows that the halo phenomenon is pedagogically rich as it combines refraction, diffuse reflection, and total internal reflection in a nontrivial way, thereby answering calls by physics education researchers for more complex, realistic examples in geometric optics instruction. Finally, this case also highlights challenges students may experience interpreting diffuse reflection and determining the position of optical features beyond image formation, not commonly a focus of introductory physics courses, textbooks, and education research.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139926651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-16DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010107
Daniel Laumann, Julian Alexander Fischer, Tatjana K. Stürmer-Steinmann, Julia Welberg, Susanne Weßnigk, Knut Neumann
Digital learning technologies have grown increasingly important in physics education, partly enforced through the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, digital technologies allowed for continued teaching and learning of students even when schools were closed. While research in psychology and educational technology has yielded many insights into the effectiveness of e-learning courses, fewer studies have examined the design of e-learning courses. Few studies have empirically investigated the design of learning tasks as a central element of e-learning courses. The present study analyzes how the design of tasks in e-learning courses, specifically with respect to their degree of openness as well as the relevance of their contexts, influences students’ behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. Due to the importance of e-learning courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also analyzed the extent to which specific learning settings (classroom learning, distance learning) influence the effects of e-learning course design on students’ behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. To investigate the research questions, we analyzed a total of datasets for 12 different e-learning courses (3 to 5 lessons, middle school physics), of which were completed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that e-learning courses with a high proportion of learning tasks that relate to meaningful real-world contexts appear to be more conducive to behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. Regarding the consideration of open-ended tasks, the results suggest that these appear to be more useful for classroom learning but should be used in a limited way when designing e-learning courses for distance education.
{"title":"Designing e-learning courses for classroom and distance learning in physics: The role of learning tasks","authors":"Daniel Laumann, Julian Alexander Fischer, Tatjana K. Stürmer-Steinmann, Julia Welberg, Susanne Weßnigk, Knut Neumann","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010107","url":null,"abstract":"Digital learning technologies have grown increasingly important in physics education, partly enforced through the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, digital technologies allowed for continued teaching and learning of students even when schools were closed. While research in psychology and educational technology has yielded many insights into the effectiveness of e-learning courses, fewer studies have examined the design of e-learning courses. Few studies have empirically investigated the design of learning tasks as a central element of e-learning courses. The present study analyzes how the design of tasks in e-learning courses, specifically with respect to their degree of openness as well as the relevance of their contexts, influences students’ behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. Due to the importance of e-learning courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also analyzed the extent to which specific learning settings (classroom learning, distance learning) influence the effects of e-learning course design on students’ behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. To investigate the research questions, we analyzed a total of <math display=\"inline\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"><mrow><mi>N</mi></mrow><mo>=</mo><mn>1060</mn></math> datasets for 12 different e-learning courses (3 to 5 lessons, middle school physics), of which <math display=\"inline\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"><mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow><mo>=</mo><mn>557</mn></math> were completed before and <math display=\"inline\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"><mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow><mo>=</mo><mn>503</mn></math> during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that e-learning courses with a high proportion of learning tasks that relate to meaningful real-world contexts appear to be more conducive to behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. Regarding the consideration of open-ended tasks, the results suggest that these appear to be more useful for classroom learning but should be used in a limited way when designing e-learning courses for distance education.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139771440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-15DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010106
Ellen Watson, Gregory Thomas
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] Epistemic beliefs about physics are most often investigated using quantitative instruments that reflect binary conceptualizations of those beliefs. This study reports from a qualitative study which used continua to represent the epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge of sixteen Western Canadian, high school physics teachers. Unlike other research, this study did not intend to compare epistemic beliefs to any specific epistemology of science. This article presents a novel, more nuanced means of analyzing interview data to construct profiles to describe epistemic beliefs. The epistemic belief profiles of the physics teachers in this study reflect each of four areas of a literature-derived theoretical framework regarding epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge. These four areas are individuals’ beliefs about the (a) source, (b) content, (c) certainty, and (d) structure of physics knowledge. The use of thematic analysis research methods and reasons for the placement of participants along continua are discussed. Potential classroom applications of this research include prompting discussions about student epistemic beliefs and collecting more nuanced representations of students’ epistemic beliefs to inform teaching.
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Pub Date : 2024-02-12DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010105
Ebba Koerfer, Bor Gregorcic
Statistical mechanics has received limited attention in physics education research and remains a relatively underrepresented topic even in research on upper-division physics courses. The purpose of this study was to explore potential challenges that physics students encounter when they solve statistical mechanics problems in groups. Adopting a grounded approach, we video recorded and analyzed nine small student groups engaging in collaborative problem solving on the topic. The analysis involved iterative thematic coding, which gave rise to ten emergent categories of challenges. These were later divided into two broad groupings: challenges with concepts and challenges with problem-solving strategies. In the first grouping, we list seven identified categories related to the concepts of macrostates and microstates, distinguishable and indistinguishable particles, temperature, entropy, energy, equilibrium, heat bath, the Boltzmann distribution, and the partition function. In the second grouping, we list three categories related to the inappropriate application of common relations, difficulty managing tensions between calculated results and qualitative reasoning, and coming up with definitions of new and inconsistent concepts. Some of our findings are supported by existing research on the topic, and others are previously unreported. Based on our findings, we propose that future research should investigate the relations between the identified challenges on one hand, and students’ epistemological framing, reasoning, and use of multiple representations on the other. Finally, we suggest that teachers should spend time engaging students in a conceptual discussion of the central ideas of statistical mechanics, motivating the choice and pointing out limitations of commonly used toy models, and linking course content to real-world phenomena.
{"title":"Exploring student reasoning in statistical mechanics: Identifying challenges in problem-solving groups","authors":"Ebba Koerfer, Bor Gregorcic","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010105","url":null,"abstract":"Statistical mechanics has received limited attention in physics education research and remains a relatively underrepresented topic even in research on upper-division physics courses. The purpose of this study was to explore potential challenges that physics students encounter when they solve statistical mechanics problems in groups. Adopting a grounded approach, we video recorded and analyzed nine small student groups engaging in collaborative problem solving on the topic. The analysis involved iterative thematic coding, which gave rise to ten emergent categories of challenges. These were later divided into two broad groupings: <i>challenges with concepts</i> and <i>challenges with problem-solving strategies</i>. In the first grouping, we list seven identified categories related to the concepts of macrostates and microstates, distinguishable and indistinguishable particles, temperature, entropy, energy, equilibrium, heat bath, the Boltzmann distribution, and the partition function. In the second grouping, we list three categories related to the inappropriate application of common relations, difficulty managing tensions between calculated results and qualitative reasoning, and coming up with definitions of new and inconsistent concepts. Some of our findings are supported by existing research on the topic, and others are previously unreported. Based on our findings, we propose that future research should investigate the relations between the identified challenges on one hand, and students’ epistemological framing, reasoning, and use of multiple representations on the other. Finally, we suggest that teachers should spend time engaging students in a conceptual discussion of the central ideas of statistical mechanics, motivating the choice and pointing out limitations of commonly used toy models, and linking course content to real-world phenomena.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139771637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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