United States

Societal stereotypes and biases pertaining to who belongs in physics and who can excel in physics can impact motivational beliefs, e.g., of women and racial and ethnic minority students in physics courses. This study investigates how the learning environment predicts male and female students’ motivational beliefs including physics self-efficacy, interest, and identity at the end of year long (spanning two-semester) algebra-based introductory physics courses. These were courses at a large university in the US taken primarily by biological science majors many of whom are interested in health professions. Although women are not underrepresented in these physics courses, societal stereotypes and biases internalized by female students over their lifetime can still impact their motivational beliefs about physics. Our findings show gender gap in motivational beliefs favoring men. These findings can be useful to provide support and create an equitable and inclusive learning environment to help all students excel in these courses.

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Learning environment predicts women&#39;s motivational beliefs in introductory physics courses

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Learning environment predicts women's motivational beliefs in introductory physics courses

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Research-validated clicker questions as instructional tools for formative assessment are relatively easy to implement and can provide effective scaffolding when developed and implemented in a sequence. We present findings from the implementation of a research-validated Clicker Question Sequence (CQS) on student understanding of the time-development of two-state quantum systems. This study was conducted in an advanced undergraduate quantum mechanics course. The effectiveness of the CQS was determined by evaluating students’ performance after traditional lecture-based instruction and comparing it to their performance after engaging with the CQS.

Using Clicker Question Sequence to Teach Time-Development in Quantum Mechanics

Given the central importance of increasing high school students’ interest as a goal of physics education in international science standards, empirical support for the theoretical description of interest is essential. Previous studies about students’ interest in physics focused on gender issues and did not include modern physics contents. Thus, we investigate which aspects of physics students are interested in and whether they can be categorised into different interest types based on their interest profiles and physics-related self-concept. We conducted a cross-cohort study with German-speaking students aged 14 to 16 years (N = 1214). A mixed Rasch analysis revealed that most students are interested in physics only when set in a context related to one’s own body, socio-scientific issues, and existential questions of humankind. Knowing high school students’ types of interest will enable educators to better design their learning activities and increase their students’ interest.

Students’ Types of Interest in Physics

We investigate the effect of working in mixed or same-gender groups on physics self-efficacy and self-reported ''peer influence on self-efficacy" in a calculus-based introductory physics course in which women are severely underrepresented. We found that men had higher physics self-efficacy and reported higher peer influence on self-efficacy than women, likely due to societal stereotypes and biases. All students except those who worked in same-gender groups had a decrease in average physics self-efficacy from the beginning to the end of the semester. Finally, gender predicted self-efficacy for students who worked in mixed-gender groups, but not for those in same-gender groups. Our findings suggest that instructors should implement classroom policies that encourage equitable and inclusive group work, so that all students can thrive.

Female students’ self-efficacy benefits most from same-gender group work

In this work, we used survey data and grade information to compare the predictive power of self-reported self-efficacy and test anxiety on low-stakes (e.g., homework and quizzes) and high-stakes (e.g., traditional exams) assessment scores in a traditionally taught large introductory physics course. We found that there are gender differences in both self-efficacy and test anxiety, as well as in high-stakes assessment outcomes. There were no gender differences in low-stakes assessment scores. Further, we found that models that control for self-efficacy and/or test anxiety eliminate the predictive power of gender for high-stakes assessment scores. Finally, we found that self-efficacy partially mediates the effect of test anxiety on high-stakes assessment outcomes. These trends suggest that teaching methods that alleviate test anxiety have the potential to create a more equitable learning environment.

Does test anxiety explain gender differences in physics exam scores?

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.

How inclusiveness of learning environment predicts students’ physics motivational beliefs

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.

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Learning environment predicts women's motivational beliefs in introductory physics courses

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