United States

Change efforts in higher education are increasingly focused at the department-level, allowing for the benefits of a grassroots approach while also incorporating top-down implementation. Two models for departmentally-based change are the Departmental Action Team (DAT) Project and Teaching Quality Framework (TQF) Initiative. In both models, externally-facilitated working groups meet regularly to work on projects relevant to their departments, though the focus and scope of teams’ work differs. To better understand how these models of institutional change operate and their implications for change work in higher education, we interviewed individuals from both efforts, including facilitators and grant PIs. Our results indicate that differences between the models have connections to the theories underlying each, and they have implications for participants’ experiences and working groups’ outcomes. We present these differences in the working group process in the two change models, the potential impact of these differences, and implications for others doing change work.

AAPT SM21

Fostering departmental change through collaboration: an analysis of two approaches

departmental

institutional

change

Join AAPT and Physics Educators worldwide in developing and strengthening your professional connections by attending the 2021 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting. AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques.

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**Making Physics More Inclusive and Eliminating Exclusionary Practices in Physics**

As a gateway discipline to STEM majors and careers, physics plays a central role in deciding who does, and who doesn't, get to discover and pursue scientific careers. Technical and scientific professionals are rewarded with economic privilege and status which affords them both social and cultural power. Therefore, social justice will be realized only when the opportunity, and the choice, to excel in physics is open to all students. The culture and practices of the physics classroom reflect the culture of physics at large, which raises the question of how our professional physics communities can embrace, rather than inadvertently repel, a diverse group of academics that can help improve physics culture.  To this end, the 2021 Physics Education Research Conference will focus on defining inclusive spaces and practices. Additionally, we will explore strategies for eliminating exclusionary practices in our classrooms, research spaces, and professional organizations. We call on the community to propose sessions that will drive conversations related to these initiatives throughout PERC 2021.

Please download the full program [here. ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRMC_SYJ3PUqXyP7sskA7LRSA8ow0eRE/view?usp=sharing)

PERC SM21

August 4, 2021 - August 5, 2021 in a Virtual Conference Format

Making Physics More Inclusive and Eliminating Exclusionary Practices in Physics

technical paper

We report on the impact of an instructional intervention incorporating computational activities into a one semester general astronomy course. Computation is an effective active learning tool for developing understanding of concepts, connecting concepts with formulae, and associating science with prediction. Spreadsheet-based computational exercises were included in the course and completed collaboratively, along with other active learning activities. The results of inclusion of the computational exercises are presented, along with examples of the computational exercises. The reasons for introducing computational activities will be discussed, along with benefits supporting the inclusion and difficulties faced when implementing the change. Student learning pre to post was measured with the TOAST and LPCI, and qualitative data was collected in the form of student surveys to investigate student learning, attitudes toward computational exercises, and overall perceptions of the course. Student surveys revealed an overall positive attitude toward the addition of computational activities.

Incorporating computational activities in a general education astronomy course

Collaborative learning is increasingly common in physics education. At Western Washington University and Chico State, we are examining student management of confusion during small group activities, with a focus on the relationship between emotions and student engagement in tasks explicitly designed to trigger confusion. A primary context for our research is the Next Generation Physical Science and Everyday Thinking curriculum. We will use four types of data: written reflections, classroom videos, interviews, and experience sampling method (ESM) surveys. ESM is an in-the-moment survey that asks participants to report their affective experiences. We will use ESM to probe student frustration and engagement and to guide the collection of more in-depth data. We seek to describe ways in which students negotiate episodes of confusion to develop shared understanding. This talk will provide an overview of the ongoing project and will discuss how we have adapted the project in response to COVID.

The Social Negotiation of Confusion for Physics Learning

Disability is an important aspect of diversity but there are barriers to access and participation for disabled students inherent in the design of physics courses. To help counteract these barriers, universities are required to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled students. However, not all students use accommodations because of social factors (e.g., disability stigma) and others do not have access to professional diagnosis. With the decision to switch to emergency remote teaching (ERT, some educators believe that courses are inherently more accessible. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of students who identify with a disability/impairment who were taking a physics course in Fall 2020 to inform policies about providing access to students in future remote and face-to-face courses. In this talk we will present ethical considerations of conducting research during ERT as well as findings related to students use of accommodations and perceived effectiveness in physics courses.

Students’ Use of Disability Accommodations in Emergency Remote Teaching

The Alma project was developed at San Francisco State with the purpose of promoting inclusion and affirming students’ identities by encouraging self-reflection through journaling. After the Alma Project was successfully piloted in 2018 in Supplemental Instruction (SI) classes, it further expanded into all SI classes as well as introductory physics and astronomy labs. In Spring 2020, reflective journaling was used as an asset-based tool to center student voices in physics classrooms and to recognize students’ experiences transitioning to online learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. In addition, a question was added to lab experience surveys to understand students' experiences with remote learning during COVID-19. Essays (N = 233) and surveys (N = 1031) were analyzed using an iterative thematic coding approach. Based on these surveys and essays, we identify themes of positive and negative impact of online teaching and learning as well as strategies students described for self-care.


Reflective Journaling in the Era of COVID

We investigate the evolution and associations between exam grades and Social Comparison Concern (SCC) among students in an introductory calculus-based physics course. SCC is a scale measuring the concern over one’s own ability or performance relative to others and has previously been found to be moderately correlated with grades. We hypothesize a mutual influence between grades and SCC. Using a structural equation model, we find evidence that exam scores partially mediate changes in SCC scores, and in turn, SCC scores partially mediate changes in exam scores, though the mediation effects are somewhat small, around 10% of the total effects between grades and SCC. We also find that while SCC scores are correlated with exam scores, they are only very weakly correlated with non-exam grade components. Overall, the results provide evidence for a dynamic feedback loop in which SCC may either negatively or positively interfere with student performance on exams.

Evolution of Grades and Social Comparison Concern within a Course

Through reflective journaling, the Alma project at San Francisco State University (an HSI) seeks to affirm STEM students’ identities, support connections with their life experiences, and recognize their cultural wealth. Our department offers a number of introductory physics and astronomy lecture and lab sequences including: a three-semester calculus-based physics sequence targeted toward engineering, computer science and physical science majors; a two-semester algebra-based physics sequence targeted toward students in the biosciences; a one-semester conceptual physics course; and one-semester conceptual astronomy course. In response to the prompt “why am I here,” designed to draw out their values and purpose, students journaled for 5 - 10 minutes and then spent time in class sharing their responses. Using an iterative thematic coding approach, we analyzed more than 400 essays and identified 11 cultural capitals expressed by students. Here we compare and contrast the frequencies of cultural capitals exhibited by respondents in different course types.

Cultural Capitals Expressed through Reflective Journaling in Introductory Physics Labs

Individual instructors’ perspectives of disability impact the experiences of disabled students. For example, if a person considers disability as mainly an individual deficit (i.e., aligned with individual or medical models), they will likely place the onus on the disabled student to fit into the existing education system. On the other hand, if a person considers disability as arising from the interaction of socially constructed spaces and practices (i.e., aligned with a social model), they may more likely consider systemic reform. As part of developing an observation protocol for inclusive teaching practices in postsecondary STEM, we interviewed experts from several relevant disciplines, including postsecondary physics and chemistry instructors, STEM discipline-based education researchers, and researchers in exceptional/special education. We will present convergences and divergences in the trends of how these experts discussed disability and inclusive teaching in postsecondary STEM and consider the implications of these perspectives for disabled students.


Experts’ Perspectives on Disability in Postsecondary STEM Across Disciplines

Over the last 4 years, our team has been designing and running online faculty learning communities (FOLCs) to support faculty in adopting the Next Generation Physical Sciences and Everyday Thinking (NGPET) curriculum to their contexts. Due to the highly interactive nature of the NGPET curriculum, faculty often discuss issues with student collaboration and pacing. In these conversations, faculty, at times, bring disenfranchising narratives about students to the table when making sense of these problems of practice. We investigate when disenfranchising narratives are disrupted in these conversations in an effort to understand how this disruption occurs. Additionally, we will investigate when these discursive challenges succeed in converging on more liberatory narratives about students. In this talk, we will showcase examples of disenfranchising narratives about students, how these narratives are disrupted discursively, and how the conversations converged. 


Modeling Disrupting Disenfranchising Narratives about Students in Faculty Conversations

In 2019 we conducted a nationwide survey (n=3,769) of teaching practices in introductory undergraduate math, physics, and chemistry courses. Survey results identified departments in the top quarter of their discipline in terms of class time spent on non-lecture activities in their introductory courses. We interviewed 29 instructors from 18 of these departments (including 11 physics instructors representing 6 departments), sampling from a range of institution types, in order to identify factors contributing to their success. We found that departments with high use of active learning in intro courses have local champions of teaching reform who are very knowledgeable about pedagogy and are supported concretely by institution and departmental resources and culture. In this talk, we focus on the variety of institution and department level characteristics that were present in departments with high use of active learning in their intro courses and how they differentially supported teaching reform.

Department and institution factors supporting active learning in intro courses

Research has shown that elementary school teachers report an intention to integrate engineering education into their classrooms (Uğraş & Genç, 2018; Kang, Donovan & McCarthy, 2018); however, they also report low confidence in their ability to teach engineering (Trygstad, 2013). In response, we developed curricular modules that include both physics and engineering instruction through a Research Practice Partnership with a local interactive science center. Each module includes four activities that include an investigation about a physics phenomenon and introduces the engineering design process across the classroom and museum learning spaces. In this paper, we analyze post-module interviews with K-6 grade teachers to understand their view of engineering activities. Using the Didactic Triangle to guide our work, we present a snapshot of teacher perceptions and suggestions for supporting teachers when engaging students in physics-based engineering design activities. These findings are also useful for other physics outreach programs that work with elementary teachers. 


Fostering departmental change through collaboration: an analysis of two approaches

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Incorporating computational activities in a general education astronomy course

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Fostering departmental change through collaborative work: an analysis of two approaches and their implications

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