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Learning Assistants (LA) are pivotal to non-traditional physics instruction in large classrooms. In this study, we used the framework of Pedagogical Content Knowledge for questioning (PCK-Q) to measure LAs’ questioning skills. We designed a written instrument describing various situations that LAs would encounter while interacting with students. LAs needed to articulate how they would support student learning considering their difficulties. We also developed a coding scheme to analyze how LAs’ questions leveraged students’ conceptual understanding. We administered this written instrument with LAs who had various years of experience in inquiry-based physics courses and analyzed their videos of interacting with students in online settings during the COVID pandemic. We validated the written instrument with class videos, delineated the LAs’ PCK-Q, and suggested how the LAs’ questions contributed to students’ conceptual learning about classical mechanics.

AAPT SM 21

Measure student assistants’ PCK-Q in online settings during COVID pandemic

learning assistants

questioning

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Research has shown that students’ achievement in science courses as well as their persistence within STEM fields is correlated to a student’s sense of self-efficacy -- the confidence in one’s own ability to perform a task. Traditionally, quantitative changes in a student’s self-efficacy over an academic semester have been measured using pre- and post-test surveys. However, with the complexity of the construct of self-efficacy, a pre-post design may warrant limitations in deeply understanding the impacts curricular and co-curricular activities have on students’ sense of self-efficacy. To investigate the dynamics of students’ self-efficacy in finer detail, we employed the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) -- self-reported, in-the-moment measurements of student experiences over time. Using the results from our pilot study, we will present how we employed the ESM to measure students’ self-efficacy while performing various tasks throughout the week, the validity of our measurements, and the possible versatility of the ESM within STEM education.

The Experience Sampling Method: Measuring the Dynamics of Students’ Self-Efficacy

We conducted a study on students’ motivational beliefs and grades in a two-term college calculus-based introductory physics sequence to investigate how the perception of learning environment predicts students’ self-efficacy, interest, identity and grades. 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.

How perception of learning environment predicts students' grades and motivational characteristics

Self-efficacy has been shown to affect student engagement, learning, and persistence in various science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses and majors. Additionally, prior research has shown that women have lower self-efficacy than men in STEM courses in which women are outnumbered by men. This study examines the self-efficacy of men and women with similar performance in two consecutive algebra-based introductory physics courses in which women make up two-thirds of the students. These were mandatory courses at a large public university in the US taken primarily by bioscience majors, many of whom are interested in health professions. Our findings show a gender gap in self-efficacy disadvantaging women when controlling for course grades in both physics 1 and physics 2 both at the beginning and end of the course. Additionally, we find that most of the gender gap in self-efficacy is due to biased perceptions rather than performance in the courses.

Physics self-efficacy of male and female students controlling for grade

Dyslexia affects 5-15% of the US population (depending on how it is measured, meaning that essentially all of us who are physics instructors have people with dyslexia in our introductory courses. Through intensive tutoring of a high school student during pandemic remote instruction, I became more aware of some physics reasoning strengths said to be common to dyslexic students, such as fluency with graphical representations. I have also become clearer on some of the barriers that typical physics courses place in the way of dyslexic students’ learning, such as complex textual representations, the specialized grammar of textbook problems, and the prohibition on talking out loud during exams. In this informal talk, a dyslexic learner and I share our lived experiences and recommendations for making physics teaching more dyslexic-friendly.

Toward more dyslexic-friendly physics teaching

Physics is not often portrayed as a field that helps individuals to satisfy communal goals, but rather is portrayed as a more self-serving career field that helps individuals achieve agentic goals. For students considering their future careers, this may dissuade more communally-driven students from pursuing a physics or physics-related career. In this study, we examine the correlations between communal/agentic goals endorsement and physics identity. As a part of the STEP UP project, data were collected from the classrooms of 16 high school physics teachers in three distinct regions of the U.S. We will present a regression model which uses goal endorsement to predict student physics identity, and how the model differs between different populations of students.

How Goals Drive Physics Identity

Physics mentors play an important role in supporting students in postsecondary education and in their transition to graduate school and careers. The knowledge and beliefs physics mentors have about disability can affect how they mentor students with disabilities. We administered the Disability and Physics Careers Survey (DPCS) to 237 practicing physicists recruited through physics-specific listservs to measure their knowledge about disability and beliefs about the viability of physics careers for people with different disability diagnoses. This study compares practicing physicists’ varied knowledge about different categories of impairments and diagnoses, and their beliefs about the viability of future careers for students with specific impairments. We present our findings examining the knowledge of practicing physicists about disability, their beliefs about the viability of certain physics careers for people with disabilities, and how those beliefs may vary depending on their personal disability experience.

Examining Physicists’ Perspectives of Career Viability and Knowledge of Impairment

In interviews about land acknowledgements, high school physics teachers expressed a number of different ways they engaged with Indigenous history after learning about and practicing land acknowledgements in a year-long professional learning community (PLC). These different ways include; learning about Indigenous displacement, connecting physics to historic and current exploitation of Indigenous lands and people, and identifying ways they can incorporate Indigenous history into their physics education curriculum. Throughout the interviews, teachers expressed how they had always viewed Indigenous history and physics as two separate schools of thoughts. This highlights the importance and need for physics education research (PER) to be more inclusive of Indigenous voices and bring to the forefront Indigenous histories, people, and perspectives. This will help start bridging the gap that continues to exclude Indigenous peoples and communities from the field of physics.

From Land Acknowledgments to Action: Engaging with Indigenous History

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a move to remote/online instruction beginning in the middle of the Spring 2020 semester. As a result, the Fall 2020 cohort of first-year physics PhD students, who would also be graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) for the first time, had to both attend their graduate coursework and teach their assigned labs and recitations remotely. Our Physics GTA Preparation course, a robust and comprehensive program that has been running since 2013 and integrates pedagogy, physics, and professional development strategies, had to be modified in terms of content and delivery to adjust to the present situation. In this talk, I will briefly describe our regular GTA preparation course, the changes made for online instruction, and the things that worked or didn't work in the modified curriculum.

Remote GTA Preparation: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

High-school teaching in Japan is traditionally known as teacher-driven. To improve the situation, the new Course of Study for high schools, which will be fully implemented in 2022, emphasizes the importance of active learning and inquiry. This study examines the effectiveness of the use of action research and RTOP (Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol) for improving high-school physics lessons in Japan. Three action research sessions were conducted for a particular Basic Physics class in two months. The results indicate that the RTOP scores improved dramatically as action research progressed, especially in the areas of teacher’s procedural knowledge and student-student interactions. The teacher’s attitudes towards active learning and collaboration also showed an improvement. Discussions on the difficulties of helping teachers have student-centered views in physics teaching will be included in the presentation.

Effectiveness of Action Research and RTOP for Improving Physics Lessons

Computational modeling is increasingly becoming a critical and necessary component of a physics education. Integrating Computation in Science Across Michigan (ICSAM), an NSF-funded program at Michigan State University, aims to help high school teachers bring computational modeling to their physics classrooms. In this presentation, we illustrate the kinds of resources that participating teachers used to integrate computation in their physics teaching through a case-study analysis of a particularly active teacher participant. Through the past two years, we observed and recorded participating teachers’ journeys in classroom videos, interviews, and other data. We examined the data using emergent coding to characterize the resources that these teachers have used while integrating computation into their classrooms and how these resources have changed over time. Through this work, we aim to share implications for professional development providers, curriculum developers, and practicing teachers. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1741575).

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