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The growing push to address the lack of diversity in physics has come with an array of curriculum reforms and interventions. There has been work in Physics Education Research (PER) that has supported these reforms, including studying the experiences and identity development of students from minoritized backgrounds. However, there has been a lack of critical reflection on the core methodologies and constructs used in PER. Here, we present a critical analysis of qualitative and quantitative work used to define and measure “expert-like” thinking, beliefs, and practices in physics. We show that this work has largely omitted any consideration of race or cultural backgrounds of participants, instead defining “experts” as either physics faculty or Ph.D. holders. Research in critical theory demonstrates that failing to intentionally address potential biases tends towards reinforcing those biases. Thus, work in PER on expert-like thinking may unintentionally replicate, rather than challenge, existing biased structures in physics. We conclude with recommendations for constructing more inclusive views of what it means for students to develop “expert-like” thinking.

PERC SM 21

A critical examination of “expert-like” in physics education research

expert-like

critical race theory

**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)

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

poster

Engaging with models has been considered central to the practice of doing science as it facilitates sensemaking of the world around us. Therefore, engaging students in the practice of using models is an important component of their science education. But to do so effectively, we also need to understand how students use models in their work. Consequently, we require a way to analyzing students' use of models. In the current work, we present an analytical framework which characterizes students' use of models by considering common themes from the existing literature on modeling in physics. These themes present themselves as five components: (i) Presence of a real-world phenomenon, (ii) Use of representation(s) depicting the phenomenon, (iii) Invoking of conceptual knowledge organized around representation(s), (iv) Presence of explanation/prediction about the phenomenon and (v) Linking the explanation/prediction to a representation through appropriate reasoning. Analysis of students' written and verbal responses to physics problems through these components indicate that students seldom link the predictions made to the representations through reasoning, and, when they do, representations are often mathematical equations even though diagrams are present in their solution.

Towards an analytic framework for characterizing student use of models

Upper division thermodynamics courses require students to develop proficiency with several combinatorial topics. While little research has been done to establish student comfort and proficiency with these topics within physics, anecdotally, instructors of these courses report that students experience unaddressed challenges when working with combinatorics. Through examining student solutions to questions on homework assignments and examinations, we identified some common student difficulties with combinatorics in the context of an upper-division thermodynamics and statistical mechanics course at a large research university. Some of these common challenges include identifying how to work with distinguishability and order, checking formulas against a specific case, and combining the multiplicities of multiple systems.

Understanding combinatorics challenges in an upper-division thermodynamics course

Selection and application of an appropriate equation is a key step in instructional problem-solving strategies. But what if one cannot exactly recall the relevant equation? We are currently investigating how coherence between physical and mathematical reasoning opens multiple solution pathways for qualitative physics problems. In one-on-one interviews, community college students, 4-year college undergraduates, and graduate students solved qualitative introductory-level E&M questions. Analysis of 18 interviews showed that while many students had initial difficulty in recalling a relevant equation, they demonstrated strategies for making progress. We present two cases from the data corpus. One interviewee was unsure whether the time constant for an RC circuit is RC or 1/(RC) and sought coherence with qualitative reasoning to determine the correct expression. Another student switched to reasoning qualitatively from a physical model after noting that they could not recall a relevant equation. These examples show how mathematical and physical reasoning is opportunistically incorporated in students’ problem solving.

Seeking coherence and switching reasoning after forgetting an equation

The entanglement between physical and mathematical reasoning can be exploited for problem solving, making physical/mathematical coherence seeking a desirable learning goal. We endeavor to enrich the empirical knowledge of students’ coherent physical/mathematical reasoning through a video analysis of problem solving. Drawing from a corpus of 18 interviews with students solving qualitative E&M problems, we discuss a case study of a student who undertakes multiple contradicting lines of reasoning and ultimately reconciles them. We discuss the types of coherent reasoning that they recruit and the central role of physical/mathematical coherence seeking in their problem solving and learning.

Seeking physical/mathematical coherence by recruiting and reconciling reasoning: A case study in E&M

Sequential synthesis problems involve multiple, chronologically occurring events. Successful problem solvers need apply relevant concepts consecutively to match these events. We explored students’ sensemaking of the situations presented in two sequential synthesis tasks by studying their eye fixation durations on each problem diagram. We also recorded students’ verbal descriptions of their problem-solving strategies. Results indicate that students fixated heavily on the parts of each diagram that require generating new information than on those that require reading given information. In addition, they seemed capable of invoking proper concepts and intermediate variables to handle the problems. According to the eye-mind framework, these outcomes indicate that students’ mental efforts went beyond comprehending given information. This study suggests that the spatiotemporal separation of multiple events in sequential synthesis problems may facilitate student sensemaking processes.

Students’ sensemaking of sequential synthesis physics problems

Using a completeness (or closure) relation is a neat math trick in quantum theory. Completeness relations capture the fundamental property that a basis set spans a vector space, and conceptually can be thought of as a special form of the identity operator. In quantum mechanics, completeness relations can be used to express a quantum state in a particular basis, change which basis a state is expressed in, as well as mathematically model the effect of a quantum interferometer. We have analyzed students' written responses to homework and final exam questions related to completeness relations from a junior-level, introduction to quantum mechanics course. In this poster, we will present student reasoning and difficulties using completeness relations.

Student Reasoning with Completeness Relations in Quantum Mechanics

An emerging body of research suggests that the nature of human reasoning itself may impact student performance on physics questions. Analysis of student reasoning patterns through the lens of dual-process theories of reasoning (DPToR) indicates that students may struggle to engage analytical processing productively when responding to physics questions containing salient distracting features (SDFs). While students may reason correctly on one question (screening question), they may abandon that same line of reasoning on an analogous question containing an SDF (target question). As part of a larger effort to investigate and support student reasoning in physics, we have designed and tested an intervention that explicitly guides students to apply the reasoning they successfully used on the screening question to the target question in order to help students reconsider their default responses. On this poster, preliminary results will be presented and implications for research-based curriculum development will be discussed.

Supporting Students in Exploring Alternative Lines of Reasoning

Graphs are an important interdisciplinary (and everyday) tool for visualizing and interpreting information use and communication processes and, thus, an essential part of 21st Century Skills. Especially linear functions are a fundamental component of school and university education, but students often have difficulties interpreting this type of function, in mathematics as well as in physics -- especially in kinematics. This paper presents first results of an eye-tracking study, which compares learners' visual attention during the interpretation of linear graphs in mathematical and physical contexts. In this study, gaze data of N=35 xxx (details redacted for review) upper secondary school students were recorded while solving items of a validated test instrument. This instrument consists of pairs of items in the mathematics and kinematics context that are isomorphic to each other, i.e., require the same procedure to solve. The analysis of the eye-tracking data provides information about the cognitive processes involved in solving the different items. On the basis of selected items, it is shown to what extent the gaze behavior differs between mathematical and kinematic contexts in isomorphic item pairs and which conclusions can thus be drawn about the different solution strategies and, thereby, also about difficulties in transferring mathematical procedures into a physical context.

Gaze pattern analysis to reveal student difficulties in interpreting kinematic graphs

Much existing physics education research (PER) on student ideas about momentum focuses on the difficulties that students face when learning this topic. These difficulties are framed as obstacles for students to overcome in order to develop correct understandings of physics. Our research takes a resources-oriented approach to analyzing student responses to momentum questions, viewing student ideas as valuable and potentially productive for learning, over and above their correctness. Here, we highlight four conceptual resources that provide insight into students’ ideas about momentum, which are the conservation resource, direction resource, collisions resource and properties resource These resources are context-dependent and could be elicited and built on by instructors to support students in developing more complex and sophisticated understandings of physics.

Identifying student resources for understanding linear momentum

The research in E&M has commonly focused on problem-solving abilities and the use of physical principles for such matters. Several studies have found that some concepts represent a challenge for undergraduate students, such as Gauss's and Ampere's laws. The inability to identify and analyze the symmetry of field and field source distributions and focus on the surface features of these E&M systems are two of the main difficulties associated with these laws so far. We present this study to contribute with a different perspective of observing 322 introductory E&M students' understanding of these laws with unconventional shapes for the field sources' enclosing objects. We use a phenomenographic approach to detect difficulties and compare the difficulties between the two contexts and those previously reported. Our main findings suggest that some students make an incomplete or incorrect analysis of the situation when they refer to surface features of the situation and that the confusions between flux and field in the electric context, or between circulation and field in the magnetic context, persist. Finally, we present suggestions for teachers to approach these difficulties.

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A critical examination of “expert-like” in physics education research

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