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Research suggests that students’ self-efficacy, interest and identity in physics can influence their learning, performance and career decisions. However, there are few studies focusing on how inclusiveness of learning environment shapes these motivational beliefs of women and men. Therefore, we conducted a study to investigate how students’ perception of the inclusiveness of learning environment (including sense of belonging, peer interaction and perceived recognition) predicts students’ physics self-efficacy, interest and identity in a calculus-based introductory physics course. Findings can be useful in creating equitable and inclusive learning environments in which all students can thrive. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

AAPT SM 22

How inclusiveness of learning environment predicts students’ physics motivational beliefs

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. Listen to internationally known plenary speakers, attend sessions, workshops, and special activities. This meeting is an excellent opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.



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This research focuses on the experiences of three undergraduate white women who are physics and astronomy majors. Specifically we conducted semi-structured, empathetic interviews which reveal how uncomfortable physics environments inside and outside of the classroom exclude undergraduate women. The women give accounts of the behaviors of their male peers and instructors that influenced the physics culture. We use standpoint theory to focus on the experiences of undergraduate women to provide a holistic perspective of physics as well as identify key issues that these women faced in their undergraduate physics program and potential strategies to implement in the future to support undergraduate women in physics and astronomy. Some of their suggestions include providing mentoring for women, holding members of the department accountable, providing feedback for instructors, and training sessions.

Negative impacts of an unwelcoming physics environment on undergraduate women

The Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA) is a multiple-choice instrument measuring a student’s conceptual understanding of electricity and magnetism. This study applied modified module analysis—partial (MMA-P), a network analytic method that identifies groups of responses using partial correlations, correcting for overall instrument score, to post-test BEMA data from one institution over many years (N =12,214). In module analysis, groups of correlated responses are called “communities.” As in previous applications of MMA-P to mechanics conceptual inventories, a number of communities related to physics concepts and some communities related to the structure of blocked items in the inventory were identified. This work supports previous results of an analysis of the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism that suggest the existence of a rich collection of misconceptions and naïve conceptions about electricity and magnetism which are consistently applied by students after instruction in introductory physics.

Module Analysis of The Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment

This study investigates the three facets of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS): personal application, personal effort, and problem-solving. The sample consists of students from a large eastern land-grant university enrolled in Physics 1 (calculus-based mechanics class). These students are primarily pursuing engineering degrees. Item Response Theory (IRT) estimates a latent variable capturing expert-like scientific attitudes. Correlations among the variables: the latent variable, the facets, FMCE pretest, and post-test scores, course grade, ACT/SAT scores, and general high school preparation school are calculated, and regression analysis is done to explore what factors explain the variance in each facet and the latent variable and to what degree.

Exploring the factors affecting the expert-like scientific attitudes

As part of a project to develop a written instrument for assessing learning assistants’ (LAs’) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the context of questioning (PCK-Q), we are experimenting with questions in a Likert-style format. Previously, we have developed and validated questions in free-response format. We are now using those questions as the basis for Likert-style questions. Likert-style questions are different because they require the LAs’ to evaluate possible LA responses to students in classroom scenarios. They are also beneficial because scoring can be automated. The instrument will examine a LA’s ability to identify appropriate responses that provide evidence of the application of PCK-Q in the classroom. We will discuss problem development, present sample problems, and future plans. Funded by NSF IUSE grant 1838339

Development of a Likert-style instrument to assess LA’s PCK-Q

We designed a rubric to assess free-response exam problems in order to compare thinking skills evidenced in exams in classes taught by different pedagogies. The rubric was designed based on Bloom’s taxonomy (revised version) [1-3]. It was then used to code exam problems. We are now using this rubric to analyze the thinking skills of students taught online during covid vs. students taught in class after covid. We analyzed exams from different sections of the algebra-based physics course taught online during covid and in class after covid. We discuss the instrument, present results and future research plans.

Assessing Thinking Skills in Free-response Exam Problems: Covid vs. Non-covid

Open-ended student responses to assessments probing their understanding often contain information about student reasoning that closed-ended responses fail to capture. The Physics Measurement Questionnaire (PMQ) is an open-ended assessment tool designed to measure student understanding of measurement uncertainty. We collected student responses to the PMQ from those enrolled in the two-semester Design, Analysis, Tools, and Apprenticeship Lab course at Michigan State University. The responses were hand-coded by researchers into one of three paradigms for student reasoning about measurement uncertainty: point-like, set-like, or undefined. Here, I will discuss how we used these data to train and test a multi-class logistic regression model. The accuracy and the highest weighted features (words) will be presented and then compared with an equivalent model developed using student data at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The comparison supports a conclusion that models trained on open-ended student responses to the PMQ are robust under small population differences.

Exploring the Reliability of Natural Language Processing Models Across Populations

This action-research project is the culmination of a semester-long course called Modern Physics for Educators. In this study, I examined how active learning using PhET simulations and Pivot Interactives affect student learning of physics as well as their attitudes and beliefs about physics, and what impact,if any, reflective writing had on student learning outcomes. This poster aims to address the following research questions: 1) Does an active learning approach using simulations correlate with student learning of physics content? 2) How do students’ incoming beliefs about physics impact their learning of physics? 3) How does reflective writing impact student learning outcomes and attitudes toward physics?

Student Learning of Photoelectric Effect Using Simulations and Reflective Writing

In this study, we examined two current physics instructors’ Bruce and Thomas views of objectivity in physics and their views of culturally relevant pedagogy. Their statements were analyzed using the conceptions of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) listed in Ladson-Billings’ (1995) framework: Conceptions of Self and Others, Conceptions of Knowledge, and Social Relations. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. We shared illustrations of their Conceptions of Knowledge that supported CRP that focused on the knowledge of physics as being constructed and reconstructed - now and into the future. Findings from our study indicate that recognition of subjectivity in physics can support instructors in effectively enacting the third conception, Conceptions of Knowledge for optimal use of CRP.

How Instructor's Conceptions of Knowledge Bolster their Culturally Relevant Teaching

Recently, many efforts to improve undergraduate STEM instruction encourage team formation. While team-based approaches are promising for enacting high quality and sustainable outcomes, they are also “risky.” Our research group is currently developing a survey instrument for teams. This research builds on our prior work to develop an instructional change teams model. The model includes five team processes – strategic leadership, egalitarian power dynamics, team member commitment, effective communication, clear decision-making processes, and three emergent states – shared vision, psychological safety, team cohesion. Through the survey development, we aim to explore the interrelationships between all the major pieces in our model and provide formative feedback about team member collaboration. In this poster, I will describe the key parts of our emerging survey instrument and share preliminary findings from the psychometric evaluation of the pilot data. Finally, I will describe opportunities for teams to engage with our work.

A survey for assessing instructional change teams in undergraduate STEM

We report on a study comparing the impact on student attitudes about science and scientific reasoning skills of two instructional interventions applied in a single semester general education physics course. The first intervention had students watch videos on physics topics and complete worksheets testing their comprehension of the concepts and the scientific reasoning shown. The second intervention had students manipulate PhET simulations and complete worksheets based on the simulations. The results of these instructional interventions are presented for two control, three video treatment, and four PhET simulation semesters. The CLASS and Lawson’s CTSR were used for pre- and posttests to assess changes in students’ attitudes about science and students’ scientific reasoning skills. Pre-post shifts in student attitudes were 3% toward more expert-like attitudes with the video interventions and 6.3% with the PhET simulations, and improvements of scientific reasoning skills of 4.2% with the videos and 7% with the PhET simulations.

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Negative impacts of an unwelcoming physics environment on undergraduate women

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