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We present a study of a large-scale intervention designed to shift lab instruction away from tightly prescribed lab norms. The intervention was implemented in a network of Professional Learning Communities of Israeli high-school physics teachers (N=250) operating in a high-stakes exam setting with limited resources, and catering to diverse groups of students. An introductory questionnaire examined the lab goals that the teachers valued, revealing a gap between teachers&#39; optimal lab goals and prevailing ones, in particular as concerns experimental design. The intervention addressed both teachers&#39; interest in change as well as the constraints imposed by the setting in which they work, by: a) modest restructuring of traditional labs: encouraging students to reflect on the considerations underlying the experimental design; b) involving teachers in collaborative reflection on classroom enactments of the restructured labs. Indeed, most teachers chose to carry out the restructured labs. We will describe barriers and affordances that the teachers identified when reflecting on their experience.

PERC SM20

Re-defining Lab Norms via Professional Learning Communities of physics teachers

professional learning communities; continuing professional development; inquiry labs; high-school physics; physics lab instruction

Join us in exploring emergent themes in PER as a scholarly endeavor and as a research community!  Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?
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AAPT SM21

We present a study of a large-scale intervention designed to shift lab instruction away from tightly prescribed lab norms. The intervention was implemented in a network of Professional Learning Communities of Israeli high-school physics teachers (N=250) operating in a high-stakes exam setting with limited resources, and catering to diverse groups of students. An introductory questionnaire examined the lab goals that the teachers valued, revealing a gap between teachers' optimal lab goals and prevailing ones, in particular as concerns experimental design. The intervention addressed both teachers' interest in change as well as the constraints imposed by the setting in which they work, by: a) modest restructuring of traditional labs: encouraging students to reflect on the considerations underlying the experimental design; b) involving teachers in collaborative reflection on classroom enactments of the restructured labs. Indeed, most teachers chose to carry out the restructured labs. We will describe barriers and affordances that the teachers identified when reflecting on their experience.

technical paper

Conceptual blending has been used to study student reasoning at the math-physics interface, but the current emphasis is mostly on the product of student reasoning, while information about the reasoning process is missing in the analysis. Therefore, we adapted the blending diagrams to also include the dynamics of student reasoning. In this session, we will use data from an interview study that focused on undergraduate students understanding of boundary conditions for the heat equation. We demonstrate the construction of a dynamic blending diagram (DBD) and its use as an analytical framework. We show that by using a DBD, we can judge the degree to which students integrate their understanding of mathematics and physics. The DBD also enables the reader to follow the line of reasoning of the students. Moreover, a DBD can be used to diagnose difficulties in student reasoning.

Dynamic conceptual blending analysis to model student reasoning processes while integrating mathematics and physics

Student assistants (SA), including graduate and undergraduate teaching/learning assistants, are pivotal to non-traditional physics instruction in large classrooms. Despite its effectiveness, little is known about how SAs Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) affects SA-student interactions and how those interactions promote students learning. We are particularly interested in SAs PCK of questioning (PCK-Q) skills. In this workshop, we will present a 6-level coding scheme to analyze SA support in different vignettes of SA-student interactions in class videos. The frequency of certain levels in multiple vignettes could suggest a measure of SAs performed PCK-Q. We will also present a written instrument with open-ended questions assessing SAs narrated PCK-Q in given situations which are drawn from vignettes of authentic SA-student interactions. We will demonstrate the process of developing and validating the coding scheme and written instrument and their use in studying SAs impact on students conceptual understanding of physics and critical thinking skills.

Measuring and improving Pedagogical Content Knowledge of student assistants in introductory physics classes

Game-based learning (GBL) has garnered much attention among researchers, as games could be an essential tool in the science classroom to enhance the learning process through play. However, the inclusion of games in astronomy education has been hampered by the lack of astronomy game resources validated in the classroom and aligned with curriculum learning outcomes. This study investigated the use of GBL activities in secondary students' conceptual understanding of astronomical concepts from the curriculum. A quasi-experimental research study involved 483 students from junior-cycle level (12-16 years) in Ireland. In this study, it was observed that the sociocultural environment promoted by the games favours student's motivation and prolonged conceptual change. During this presentation, the authors will report on how GBL facilitated or constrained the student learning process. Particularly, we will focus on how the ontological aspects of students reasoning about astronomical phenomena are affected by GBL instruction.

Game-based learning as a tool for promoting conceptual change in astronomy

Physics courses often have high failure rates that may disproportionately harm students who are marginalized by racism, sexism, and classism. We examined the associations between Learning Assistant (LA) supported courses and equity in non-passing grades (DFW) in introductory physics courses. The data used in the study came from 2312 students in 41 sections of introductory physics courses at a regional Hispanic serving institution. We developed hierarchical generalized linear models of student DFW rates that accounted for gender, race, first-generation status, and LA-supported instruction. We used a quantitative critical race theory (QuantCrit) perspective focused on the role of hegemonic power structures in perpetuating inequity. Our QuantCrit perspective informed our research questions, methods, and interpretations of findings. The models associated LAs with overall decreases in DFW rates and larger decreases for students of color than their white peers. While inequities in DFW rates were lower in LA-supported courses, they were still present.

Associations Between Learning Assistants, passing introductory physics, and equity: a QuantCrit Investigation

Undergraduate physics laboratory course structures have been identified in policy reports for novel design innovations to meet the needs of a diverse and growing student population. To this end, an at-home laboratory option was implemented at a large, public university for introductory physics students. A quasi-experimental, observational quantitative study was undertaken to understand students epistemological views, socialization, and help seeking behaviors in in-person and at-home laboratory environments. Students in introductory physics (N=998) were surveyed to elicit their epistemological beliefs about physics laboratory work and their views on social engagement and academic help-seeking. Students showed no statistically significant differences in attitudes related to epistemological beliefs and help-seeking behaviors when compared to students in traditional laboratory courses. In-person students valued socialization higher than at-home students. This study provides insights into the feasibility of at-home, hands-on laboratory work to meet students needs, and institutional recommendations for student advisement.

Epistemological, socialization, and help seeking views of students taking in-person and online undergraduate physics laboratories

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are key partners in the education of undergrads. Given the potentially large impact GTAs can have on undergraduate student learning, it is important to provide them with appropriate preparation for teaching. But GTAs are students themselves, and not all of them desire an academic career. Therefore, it is crucial that GTA preparation not be a burden but rather be fully integrated into their professional development. In this talk, we describe a GTA preparation course for first-year PhD students. Through a yearly cycle of implementation and revision, the course has evolved into a robust and comprehensive professional development program that is well-received by physics graduate students. We assessed the effectiveness of the course with a combination of surveys, pre/post tests, and student evaluations. We found that GTAs feel better prepared for teaching and adopt more learner-centered teaching approaches after participating in the program.

Transforming the Preparation of Physics GTAs

Instructors know that many college students tend to delay working on homework assignments until close to the due date. Such "cramming" behavior may lead to insufficient engagement with learning materials. In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of reducing "cramming" by offering small amounts of extra credit for completing parts of the assignments before the due date. Student learning behavior is characterized by first identifying clusters of clickstream records that represent a continuous study session, then analyzing the duration and starting time of each study session. We observed that after offering extra credit for early completion, the average duration of study sessions remains unchanged, but more study sessions took place earlier than the assignment due date, shortly before the extra credit due dates. We will discuss how extra credit impacts different student populations, as well as the quality of students learning behavior. As institutions across the nation shift abruptly to online learning at the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic, students are facing significant challenges to keep up with regular course schedules when studying from home, and due dates for online assignments must be more flexible as to accommodate for those challenges. This study suggests that the use of extra credit can be an effective method to incentivize completion of assignments among some students.

The impact of extra credit incentives on students’ work habits when completing online homework assignments

Students perceptions of their confidence in their ability to complete a task, known as self-efficacy, affects student effort and persistence. Self-efficacy increases with improvements in learning methods and is a good predictor for success. Classroom dynamics also impact students self-efficacy by allowing for different sources of self-efficacy. Previous research indicates that self-efficacy is context-specific and that male and female students benefit from different sources of self-efficacy. In this study, we analyzed interviews from 12 students enrolled in a flipped integral calculus course to understand their perceptions of self-efficacy and how these perceptions impact their learning experiences. Findings reveal that experiences in previous math courses, particularly high school, impacted students perceptions of their self-efficacy in math both positively and negatively, active learning increased students confidence in their ability to do math from their perspective, and verbal persuasion (implicit encouragement) increased students confidence and was seen as a helpful way to learn.

Qualitative analysis of students' perceptions of their self-efficacy in a flipped integral calculus course (PERC)

Diagrams in physics communicate ideas and can aid in problem solving. Many researchers have explored student use of professional representations in physics, however characterizing spontaneously-generated diagrams from student problem solving has proven difficult. Using data from problem-solving interviews with undergraduate and graduate physics majors, we compare unprompted and prompted student-generated diagrams across six physical contexts. Informed by the distributed cognition and resources frameworks, we explore how extensively students spontaneously externalize physical details during problem solving as well as which diagramming resources students employ in different settings. We found that, overall, students correctly answered questions if they could generate accurate diagrams in a particular physical context, regardless of the extent to which they did so (without prompting) during problem solving. This finding, and our subsequent in-depth qualitative analysis across the six physical contexts, can help instructors create alignment between their learning goals, instruction, and assessment regarding diagrams in physics.

Comparing Unprompted and Prompted Student-generated Diagrams

New curricular outcomes are being developed and adopted towards emphasizing personal explanations from cultural experiences and influences intended to complement prevailing curriculum elements of physics phenomena and concepts. Efforts to educate for social justice, inclusion, and cultural awareness across disciplines is a departure from the siloed history of content only curricular matter. However, educating for global citizenship situates teachers in unchartered territory to include new perspectives and knowledge. This study, conducted with secondary level physics teachers (n=32), explored contributing factors related to their perceived efficacy of teaching in these new directions. Findings indicate that a) years of teaching, b) pedagogical strategies and foci, c) epistemological frames, and d) perceived degree of autonomy in conducting classes without administrative interference contribute to their perceptions. With the call for increased diversity in physics, this talk articulates implications for teaching physics in this modern educational landscape.

Re-defining Lab Norms via Professional Learning Communities of physics teachers

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Dynamic conceptual blending analysis to model student reasoning processes while integrating mathematics and physics

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