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Studio physics is an interactive teaching method that benefits students&#39; learning over traditional physics teaching approaches. A hallmark of studio physics is that instructors minimize lecture time and maximize time spent with students working in groups. However, students need to be well-supported in the group discussions to achieve optimal learning outcomes. In this study, we distributed a student survey and conducted instructor interviews to investigate the support(s) students requested so they could actively engage in group work. The student survey data revealed that students wanted instructors to be approachable during group work and to have a mechanism that guarantees equal group contribution. However, there is a mismatch between the support provided by instructors and the detailed support requested by students. Unified and rigorous guidance for instructors is a necessity for students to actively engage in effective and inclusive group work.

PERC SM 22

They’re not buying what we’re selling: Comparing student-requested supports with instructional practice during group work

PERC 2022 is focused on "queering physics education" through an intersectional lens. By "queering," we are centering queer theory which breaks down social constructions and hierarchies to unpack normalized assumptions. In the context of physics education, we want to apply the theory to unpack who has power in physics to control the production of future physicists, how physics policies and practices are sometimes built on ideas of punishment and power, and how PER embeds binaries in both its content and sociological research. Further, we want to encourage a dialogue that is both a critique and an imagining of a queer future for PER.

Explicit attention will be given to constructions of race, (dis)ability, gender, sexuality and how they interact and impact lived experiences.

We have had such a fun time organizing this year’s PERC. You might be aware that we were committed to transparency and documenting our processes and decision making which we outlined here. This year has also been challenging to be a queer or otherwise marginalized person in the US. And we continue to seek and provide support for those individuals.

As such, we recommend that folks visiting Grand Rapids who have the means consider giving to some local organizations who are working to advocate for those impacted by historic and ongoing marginalization and violence.


PERC 2022 focused on "queering physics education" through an intersectional lens. By "queering," we centered queer theory which breaks down social constructions and hierarchies to unpack normalized assumptions. In the context of physics education, we apply the theory to unpack who has power in physics to control the production of future physicists, how physics policies and practices are sometimes built on ideas of punishment and power, and how PER embeds binaries in both its content and sociological research. Further, we wanted to encourage a dialogue that is both a critique and an imagining of a queer future for PER. Explicit attention was given to constructions of race, (dis)ability, gender, sexuality and how they interact and impact lived experiences.

Studio physics is an interactive teaching method that benefits students' learning over traditional physics teaching approaches. A hallmark of studio physics is that instructors minimize lecture time and maximize time spent with students working in groups. However, students need to be well-supported in the group discussions to achieve optimal learning outcomes. In this study, we distributed a student survey and conducted instructor interviews to investigate the support(s) students requested so they could actively engage in group work. The student survey data revealed that students wanted instructors to be approachable during group work and to have a mechanism that guarantees equal group contribution. However, there is a mismatch between the support provided by instructors and the detailed support requested by students. Unified and rigorous guidance for instructors is a necessity for students to actively engage in effective and inclusive group work.

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Quantitative and survey research often limit or erase the possibilities of trans people within datasets. Gender is often measured as a binary and is also conflated with sex in survey research. Through a critical queer lens, we will discuss new approaches for measuring gender which could allow for a more nuanced understanding of how gender shapes our experiences. Using data collected from the Trans* Inclusivity Scale, developed through my dissertation, I will talk about trans* inclusive behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge student affairs staff have when working alongside trans* students and how this can extend into other areas of education and research. The discussion will then point to areas where policies and practices can be utilized to create a better environment for trans students And, finally, the talk will conclude with a discussion of future research within this work.

Beyond the Binary: Critically Queer Approaches to Quantitative Research in Education

Though much of contemporary PER work is carried out within the US, there are PER efforts outside the US that are frequently overlooked by the broader US PER community. The result is often not only a blinkered representation of the scholarship on the teaching and learning of physics, but also a lack of cross-cultural comparison between international contexts that may have important implications for physics education researchers and physics teachers interpreting and applying the results of PER studies from other countries. What is needed is a greater awareness of the international work done in the field of PER as well as an appreciation of the factors that can substantively shape the teaching and learning of physics in those international contexts. In this session we showcase the work of PER scholars working in the Nordic countries and discuss the Nordic context as it relates to PER. This session brings together a collection of physics education researchers working within Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, all of whom are members of newly established Nordic Physics Education Research Consortium. The presenters will each introduce the broader efforts of the research groups in which they work, discuss their own research, and reflect on some of the contextual factors that make PER different for them outside the US. The session will also provide time for discussion with the audience and briefly introduce the goals of the Nordic Physics Education Research Consortium.

Physics education research in the Nordic Countries

This session features three early career scholars whose work centers queerness and queer theory in the context of STEM higher education.

Queerness in STEM education: perspectives from early career scholars

When we think about queer as a verb, adjective, and a noun, some things become clearer (and queerer!) while also making other issues more complicated a murky. This talk examines the idea of queering various components of our knowledge, scholarship, and pedagogy, inviting attendees to explore what we think we know, and then removing many of the (potentially biased) assumptions that undergird this knowledge to more deeply explore the world. Using queer theory, transdisciplinary approaches, and self reflection, this talk offers little in the way of answers, but rather, opens up a host of new avenues of approaches to thinking about education and knowledge.

Quarks are a bit queer: Rethinking known truths from a queer mindset

Research centering queer and trans* (QT) physics students has shed light on how undergraduate physics reinforces misogyny and cisheteronormativity, with emerging work on intersectionality capturing racialized dimensions for QT students of color. Introductory physics courses, as gatekeepers to STEM majors, have been important contexts in PER for exploring issues of equity, but QT students' experiences in these racialized and gendered spaces have not been considered. Positing a future direction for PER to advance queer and intersectional justice, this paper presents findings from an analysis that interrogates how introductory physics reinforces white cisheteropatriarchy in STEM experiences among QT students of color.

"We can’t just turn that off and then do some physics”: A counter-storytelling analysis of introductory physics as a white, cisheteropatriarchal space

In this plenary, we model a physics lesson exploring wave and particle properties of light. This teaching exposition exemplifies how queer theory can guide instruction that de-stabilizes binaries, absolutes, and power inequalities within both physics content and classroom social dynamics to promote inclusive, identity-affirming opportunities to learn. Concurrent with the lesson, we narrate our pedagogical reasoning, including how physics education research and queer theory informed the lesson design, as well as how we negotiated constraints (e.g., limited race and gender diversity in physics resources). We conclude by illustrating how instruction in our lesson makes space for complex understandings of science, which expand educational opportunities that affirm queer and trans* students' diverse and dynamic social realities as physics learners.

Leveraging queer epistemic subjectivity to advance justice through physics teaching

The need for physicists to work with others outside of the discipline of physics has become more prominent due to the growing necessity of interdisciplinary subjects and careers. While this need exists, there are few opportunities for physics students to gain collaborative experiences and skills. This study looks at how a community of practice formed within an informal physics program that was designed specifically to bring undergraduate physics and graphic design students together to create an aesthetic physics teaching tool. Throughout this 10 week summer project, we collected qualitative data in the form of interviews and written responses from a team of four undergraduate students, observed meetings, and interviewed the project co-developers. These data record the students' and co-developers' experiences as they work together to develop a public engagement project aimed at combining physics with art and design. Using an operationalized Communities of Practice framework to analyze these data, we are able to explore the formation of a Community of Practice and better understand how developing informal physics programs can foster a community of practice environment.

Examining community of practice formation within a new informal art and physics program

Symmetry is widely used by physicists and recognized as valuable in the Next Generation Science Standards, which embeds symmetry in two of the Cross-Cutting Concepts: Patterns; and Scale, proportion, and quantity. Using the theoretical framework of Knowledge in Pieces, KiP, we hypothesize that students have symmetry resources that they use in sensemaking about magnetism. In this qualitative study, we recorded videos of middle and high school grade students as they interacted with magnets and created models of permanent magnetism in various informal learning settings . During the interviews, we asked questions intended to trigger the use of symmetry resources.  We transcribed and analyzed the interview data using an approach to discourse analysis informed by KiP. The preliminary results suggest that students have knowledge resources that they are able to access for the types of symmetry present in permanent magnetism: translational, rotational, reflective, scaling, and pseudo-vector symmetries.

Students’ use of symmetry resources when sensemaking about magnetism

As part of an effort to examine student understanding of expressions for probability in an upper-division spins-first quantum mechanics (QM) context, clinical think-aloud interviews were conducted with students following relevant instruction. Students were given various tasks to showcase their conceptual understanding of the mathematics and physics underpinning these expressions. The symbolic forms framework was used as a lens through which to analyze their understanding. Various symbol templates and conceptual schemata were identified, in Dirac and function notations, with multiple schemata paired with different templates. The overlapping linking suggests that defining strict template-schema pairs may not be feasible or productive for studying student interpretations of expressions for probability in upper-division QM courses.

Applying a symbolic forms lens to probability expressions in upper-division quantum mechanics

We draw on methods from lines-of-argument analysis in Critical Interpretive Synthesis to synthesize and critique pathways through which disabled students access supports in postsecondary STEM. Integrating recent literature about pathways to access in postsecondary education as well as our ongoing research, we describe various mechanisms through which disabled students are currently provided (or not provided) access in postsecondary STEM and identify strengths and weaknesses with these various pathways. Specifically, we describe and problematize the typical accommodations process, which requires students to register with a Disability Resource Center which then negotiates accommodations with the disabled student and their instructors. Next, we describe alternatives to the traditional accommodations model, such as normalizing discussion of access needs (a tenant of disability justice), allowing individual instructors to validate students' needs and appropriate accommodations, and access through interdependence (another tenant of disability justice). We describe dimensions along which these pathways vary, such as process, disclosure, requirements for validity, and burden. We suggest instructors and mentors pull from all these models to create a transparent ecosystem of supports.

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They’re not buying what we’re selling: Comparing student-requested supports with instructional practice during group work

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Beyond the Binary: Critically Queer Approaches to Quantitative Research in Education

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Students’ use of symmetry resources when sensemaking about magnetism

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