United States

This article outlines survey results seeking to understand USA Physics Education Research (PER) Ph.D. programs. The survey explored research group composition, the number of graduates, courses taken and more. The survey was sent to a list of PER research group leaders created by crowdsourcing from the PER community. Of the 46 PER Ph.D. programs identified and invited to the survey, 25 usable responses were received. The majority of programs were in departments of physics with fewer in schools of education or institutes of science education. Most programs required graduate physics course work, with fewer requiring research methodology courses. Only five required a course in PER. The majority of graduates into academic careers. However, a robust minority pursued careers in the private sector. The survey results allow us to estimate the size of the PER community in research groups at PhD granting institutions to be n=487 people with n=156 P.h.D. students. Graduate Programs in Physics Education Research

PERC SM 20

Graduate Programs in Physics Education Research

graduate education

physics education research

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AAPT SM 21

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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?
Following the lead of AAPT for the summer meeting, PERC 20/20 was virtual. Enjoy browsing the content.

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?

Problem-solving is an important skill for undergraduate physics students. In addition to having the basic skills and background knowledge, students epistemic framing can play an important role in their ability to solve physics problems. As part of a bigger effort in understanding how to help instructors to better facilitate students work, we would like to find out when students proceed through problems in similar ways and the potential relationship between question characteristics and students framing to these questions. In this study, we use a two-dimensional theoretical framework (CAMP framework: Conceptual Physics, Algorithmic Physics, Conceptual Math, Algorithmic Math) to analyze and compare different students framing to the same set of questions of research-based tutorials in upper-division electricity and magnetism. We present a case study of comparing the self-reported framing of two students as they work through the same set of tutorial problems. Preliminary analysis suggests a correlation between question characteristics and student epistemic framing.

Question characteristics and students’ epistemic framing

The rapid spread of COVID-19 this spring abruptly halted normal everyday student and teacher experiences across the United States and the world. In addition to forcing classes online at many universities, the impact of the virus posed a number of external pressures for students as they struggled to complete their semester. We seek to bring light to those pressures through the lens of their physics coursework. In this case study, we looked at these impacts on three student subpopulations: beginning undergraduate students (n=13), advanced undergraduates (n=10), and graduate student TAs (n=8) Results of an end of semester survey revealed that decreased motivation had a large impact on student work for all subgroups. We found that advanced students had the largest increase in stress levels related to coursework graduate TAs struggled with supporting students. We discuss nuances and implications of instruction for next year.

Lightning changes amidst Covid-19: A case study of how a large research institute moved physics classes and labs online and its impact on students and graduate teaching instructors

We have investigated how university students physics identities can be fostered through teaching youth in informal physics programs through the collection of interviews from participants in three different informal programs. We present the results seen from analyzing the interviews with an operationalized Communities of Practice framework. Our analysis shows that students identities can be supported through different structures and practices within each program. This poster will show how students personal values aligning with an informal programs mission was the biggest predictor of membership, while interactions with members of the community served as the most important mechanism for integration into the community. We aim to start a conversation around how existing informal programs can be better in order to support students from all backgrounds and how new informal programs can be designed to support student facilitators.

Informal Physics Programs as Integral Experiences for Physics Identity Development

"There are previous studies on students difficulties in the understanding of the rotation of a rigid body [1, 2, 3]. It is well known that the comprehension of the moment of inertia is essential to understand any phenomenon of the rotation of a rigid body. The objective of our study is to inquire into the conceptions of university students when they explain the role of the moment of inertia in phenomena of rotation of a rigid body about a fixed axis. We have designed an open-ended questionnaire for students in a calculus-based introductory physics course. The questions were designed following an epistemological analysis in order to raise the key concepts needed to understand the moment of inertia of a rigid body properly. In this study, we intend to find different ways in which students interpret significant aspects of the moment of inertia, through the analysis and understanding of students explanations [4]. We will present a number of the questions and results obtained from them.

[1] Close, Gomez & Heron (2013). Am. J. Phys. 81(6), 458-470.
[2] Rimoldini & Singh (2005). Phys Rev PER, 1(1), 010102.
[3] Mashood & Singh (2015). Eur. J. Phys, 36(4), 045020.
[4] Savall-Alemany, Domènech-Blanco, Guisasola & Martínez-Torregrosa (2016) Phys Rev PER, 12, 010132."

Students’ understanding of the moment of inertia in a rotating rigid body

We use a quantitative measure to compare item response curves of matched pre-/post-instruction Force Concept Inventory data. The approach makes use of treating an item response curve as an N-dimensional vector where N is the number of possible scores (i.e., N=31 for the FCI). The approach thus enables a comparison of the same item response curves for two populations by taking a dot product. The value of a weighted and normalized dot product provides a measure of how close the pre-instruction and post-instruction item response curves are to each other. While we focus our attention on one particular item on the Force Concept Inventory, we find for items that have an answer choice functioning as a distractor that the pre-instruction and post-instruction item response curves are at times substantially different.

Comparing item response curves of matched pre-/post-FCI respondents

In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, physics laboratory instructors worldwide leaped into action, transforming their courses from the hands-on to distance-learning. At Portland State University, two different methods were applied to accomplished this transformation for the Spring term, introductory physics lab course. One method was to replace the in-person laboratory apparatus environment with an existing, freely available physics simulation. The other method was to design and create a new component of the course that complements the simulation-based labs. This new curriculum guides introductory students through the process of selecting, designing, and conducting their own, independent experiment using tools available to them at home. We describe the process of those two efforts and present an outline of the new course curriculum. In addition, we designed a research study to measure the impact of the new curriculum on several student learning goals, such as experimental design and uncertainty estimation skills, as well as students attitudes regarding the purpose of experimentation and self-efficacy.

Rapid creation and assessment of introductory physics laboratory curriculum

Self-efficacy (SE) the confidence in ones own ability to complete a task has been shown to be an important predictor of student success in the sciences. Traditionally, SE is measured using pre/post instruction surveys or retrospective interviews. In this study, we present a pilot of a mixed-methods approach to studying SE. This approach combines a fine-grained quantitative measure with close to the event qualitative reflections. In this paper, we present results from this initial study with five students who transferred credit from a two-year college into a bachelors program to study physics or astronomy at a large mid-western research university. We report on the incentive structure of the methodology and threats to the integrity of the data. Results indicate that our methodology is robust and ready to scale to a larger study.

Implementing a Mixed-Methods Approach to Understand Students' Self-efficacy: A Pilot Study

Student exposure to modern physics topics is severely limited in k-12 education. Secondary physics curricula in the U.S. predominantly focus on physics content established prior to the 20th century and rarely address modern topics like quantum physics. Even so, students are frequently exposed to terms such as quantum physics through a variety of contexts prior to post-secondary education. The aim of this study is to analyze secondary student perspectives of the term quantum physics. To do so, a group of secondary physics students were asked to complete a word-association test to establish a baseline of commonalities among student perspectives. The results of the tests revealed significant commonalities among student perspectives with the most common association being complexity. The results of the tests also revealed that students often view quantum physics as a complex version of classical physics.

Students' Pre-Instructional Perspectives of Quantum Physics (PERC)

At Michigan State University, we have created a facilitated a workshop with the intention of promoting the success and persistence rates of underrepresented minority students enrolled in Physics 183 (PHY-183) - Introductory Mechanics, a STEM gateway course. The goals of this initiative are to give students a space to build supportive peer networks and have opportunities to engage in scientific practices that support their success in physics courses. To facilitate the development of this supportive network, students were invited to attend 1-2 sessions a week which included a shared meal during which semi-planned discussion topics about equity and inclusion were introduced. In this poster, we outline the approach of one graduate teaching assistant (TA) facilitating this workshop, an analysis of the TAs approach, and our takeaways from studying this approach to building a supportive learning community.

A graduate teaching assistant’s approach to facilitating a supportive peer network (PERC)

Matrix algebra and eigentheory are important to students' learning of physics in upper division physics courses. In this study, we investigated how students apply matrix algebra and eigentheory in various physics contexts, excluding quantum mechanics. The data collected consist of student written responses taken from a math methods course. We used the Physical-Mathematical Model (Uhden et al, 2011) to categorize each question by the three skills the model presents: mathematization, interpretation, and technical operation. The results from our data show that students have difficulty with mathematizing and interpreting the mathematical and physical system of a matrix equation, but are fluent in technical operations. We will present examples of student responses illustrating student reasoning, and discuss implications for classroom instruction.

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Question characteristics and students’ epistemic framing

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