{"title":"Comment on “Examining the effect of counternarratives about physics on women’s physics career intentions”","authors":"M. B. Weissman, J. M. Robins","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.018001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.018001","url":null,"abstract":"<span>DOI:</span><span>https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.20.018001</span>","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140201740","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 : 2024-03-22DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010117
C. F. J. Pols, P. J. J. M. Dekkers
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Acknowledgement of the limited learning outcomes in our first-year physics lab course, strikingly similar to the observed and reported issues in literature, incited renewal of the course with a focus on developing students’ ability to engage in experimental physics research. The procedural and conceptual knowledge (PACKS) model—addressing different types of knowledge required for scientific investigation—was used as a “guide” in the transformation of the course. This educational design research study—distinguishing three stages—describes our approach in transforming the course and provides theoretical insights and practical solutions through the combined study of both the process of learning and the means that support that process. The merits and trade-offs of our approach and the effectiveness of the course transformation are evaluated through surveys, interviews, and assessment of students’ inquiry skills. The findings provide insights into the application of the PACKS model and its effectiveness in facilitating students’ development of physics inquiry abilities. The results reveal an alignment between perceived, attained and intended learning goals. The self-conceived experiment at the end of the course showcases students’ successful integration of the targeted knowledge types, previously addressed in isolated “preparatory” activities. We argue that the PACKS-model and the design principles are useful attributes when transforming a traditional lab activity, but also specify the limitations.
{"title":"Redesigning a first year physics lab course on the basis of the procedural and conceptual knowledge in science model","authors":"C. F. J. Pols, P. J. J. M. Dekkers","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010117","url":null,"abstract":"[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Acknowledgement of the limited learning outcomes in our first-year physics lab course, strikingly similar to the observed and reported issues in literature, incited renewal of the course with a focus on developing students’ ability to engage in experimental physics research. The <i>procedural and conceptual knowledge (PACKS) model</i>—addressing different types of knowledge required for scientific investigation—was used as a “guide” in the transformation of the course. This educational design research study—distinguishing three stages—describes our approach in transforming the course and provides theoretical insights and practical solutions through the combined study of both the process of learning and the means that support that process. The merits and trade-offs of our approach and the effectiveness of the course transformation are evaluated through surveys, interviews, and assessment of students’ inquiry skills. The findings provide insights into the application of the PACKS model and its effectiveness in facilitating students’ development of physics inquiry abilities. The results reveal an alignment between perceived, attained and intended learning goals. The self-conceived experiment at the end of the course showcases students’ successful integration of the targeted knowledge types, previously addressed in isolated “preparatory” activities. We argue that the PACKS-model and the design principles are useful attributes when transforming a traditional lab activity, but also specify the limitations.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140205668","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 : 2024-03-22DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010116
Jennifer Campbell, Katie Ansell, Tim Stelzer
Recent advances in publicly available natural language processors (NLP) may enhance the efficiency of analyzing student short-answer responses in physics education research (PER). We train a state-of-the-art NLP, IBM’s Watson, and test its agreement with human coders using two different studies that gathered text responses in which students explain their reasoning on physics-related questions. The first study analyzes 479 student responses to a lab data analysis question and categorizes them by main idea. The second study analyzes 732 student answers to identify the presence or absence of each of the two conceptual themes. When training Watson with approximately one-third to half of the samples, we find that samples labeled with high confidence scores have similar accuracy to human agreement; yet for lower confidence scores, humans outperform the NLP’s labeling accuracy. In addition to studying Watson’s overall accuracy, we use this analysis to better understand factors that impact how Watson categorizes. Using the data from the categorization study, we find that Watson’s algorithm does not appear to be impacted by the disproportionate representation of categories in the training set, and we examine mislabeled statements to identify vocabulary and phrasing that may increase the rate of false positives. Based on this work, we find that, with careful consideration of the research study design and an awareness of the NLP’s limitations, Watson may present a useful tool for large-scale PER studies or classroom analysis tools.
{"title":"Evaluating IBM’s Watson natural language processing artificial intelligence as a short-answer categorization tool for physics education research","authors":"Jennifer Campbell, Katie Ansell, Tim Stelzer","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010116","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in publicly available natural language processors (NLP) may enhance the efficiency of analyzing student short-answer responses in physics education research (PER). We train a state-of-the-art NLP, IBM’s Watson, and test its agreement with human coders using two different studies that gathered text responses in which students explain their reasoning on physics-related questions. The first study analyzes 479 student responses to a lab data analysis question and categorizes them by main idea. The second study analyzes 732 student answers to identify the presence or absence of each of the two conceptual themes. When training Watson with approximately one-third to half of the samples, we find that samples labeled with high confidence scores have similar accuracy to human agreement; yet for lower confidence scores, humans outperform the NLP’s labeling accuracy. In addition to studying Watson’s overall accuracy, we use this analysis to better understand factors that impact how Watson categorizes. Using the data from the categorization study, we find that Watson’s algorithm does not appear to be impacted by the disproportionate representation of categories in the training set, and we examine mislabeled statements to identify vocabulary and phrasing that may increase the rate of false positives. Based on this work, we find that, with careful consideration of the research study design and an awareness of the NLP’s limitations, Watson may present a useful tool for large-scale PER studies or classroom analysis tools.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140198533","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 : 2024-03-12DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010115
Mary Jane Brundage, David E. Meltzer, Chandralekha Singh
We use the Survey of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws-Long, a research-based survey instrument with 78 items at the level of introductory physics, to investigate introductory and advanced students’ difficulties with internal energy, work, and heat transfer. We present analysis of data from 12 different introductory and advanced physics classes at four different higher education public institutions in the U.S. in which the survey was administered in person to more than 1000 students. We find that not only introductory but also advanced physics students have many common difficulties with these introductory thermodynamic concepts after traditional lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts. We utilize a wide variety of problem types and contexts and our sample includes large numbers of introductory algebra-based, calculus-based, and advanced students. Some of our findings are consistent with prior research in this area, but others expand upon them and reveal previously unreported aspects of students’ thinking. Findings related to common difficulties of students before and after traditional lecture-based instruction in college physics courses can help instructors of these courses plan instruction and curricula to improve student understanding. These findings can also be valuable for developing effective research-based curricula and pedagogies to address student difficulties and help students develop a functional understanding of these fundamental thermodynamic concepts.
{"title":"Investigating introductory and advanced students’ difficulties with change in internal energy, work, and heat transfer using a validated instrument","authors":"Mary Jane Brundage, David E. Meltzer, Chandralekha Singh","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.20.010115","url":null,"abstract":"We use the Survey of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws-Long, a research-based survey instrument with 78 items at the level of introductory physics, to investigate introductory and advanced students’ difficulties with internal energy, work, and heat transfer. We present analysis of data from 12 different introductory and advanced physics classes at four different higher education public institutions in the U.S. in which the survey was administered in person to more than 1000 students. We find that not only introductory but also advanced physics students have many common difficulties with these introductory thermodynamic concepts after traditional lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts. We utilize a wide variety of problem types and contexts and our sample includes large numbers of introductory algebra-based, calculus-based, and advanced students. Some of our findings are consistent with prior research in this area, but others expand upon them and reveal previously unreported aspects of students’ thinking. Findings related to common difficulties of students before and after traditional lecture-based instruction in college physics courses can help instructors of these courses plan instruction and curricula to improve student understanding. These findings can also be valuable for developing effective research-based curricula and pedagogies to address student difficulties and help students develop a functional understanding of these fundamental thermodynamic concepts.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140147543","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 : 2024-03-11DOI: 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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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.
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