[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Preparing and Supporting University Physics Educators.] In this study, we analyze the experience of students in the Physics Learning Assistant (LA) program at Texas State University in terms of the existing theoretical frameworks of community of practice and physics identity, and explore the implications suggested by these theories for LA program adoption and adaptation. Regression models from physics identity studies show that the physics identity construct strongly predicts intended choice of a career in physics. The goal of our current project is to understand the details of the impacts of participation in the LA experience on participants' practice and selfconcept, in order to identify critical elements of LA program structure that positively influence physics identity and physics career intentions for students. Our analysis suggests that participation in the LA program impacts LAs in ways that support both stronger "physics student" identity and stronger "physics instructor" identity, and that these identities are reconciled into a coherent integrated physics identity. Increased comfort in interactions with peers, near peers, and faculty seems to be an important component of this identity development and reconciliation, suggesting that a focus on supporting community membership is useful for effective program design.
We provide evidence that a learning activity called Energy Theater engages learners with key conceptual issues in the learning of energy, including disambiguating matter flow and energy flow and theorizing mechanisms for energy transformation. A participationist theory of learning, in which learning is indicated by changes in speech and behavior, supports ethnographic analysis of learners' embodied interactions with each other and the material setting. We conduct detailed analysis to build plausible causal links between specific features of Energy Theater and the conceptual engagement that we observe. Disambiguation of matter and energy appears to be promoted especially by the material structure of the Energy Theater environment, in which energy is represented by participants, while objects are represented by areas demarcated by loops of rope. Theorizing mechanisms of energy transformation is promoted especially by Energy Theater's embodied action, which necessitates modeling the time ordering of energy transformations.
The Energy Project at Seattle Pacific University has developed representations that embody the substance metaphor and support learners in conserving and tracking energy as it flows from object to object and changes form. Such representations enable detailed modeling of energy dynamics in complex physical processes. We assess student learning by means of representations that learners invent to explain energy dynamics in specific real-world scenarios. Refined versions of these learner-generated representations have proven valuable for our own teaching, physics understanding, and research.
Background: High-stakes assessments, such the Graduate Records Examination, have transitioned from paper to computer administration. Low-stakes research-based assessments (RBAs), such as the Force Concept Inventory, have only recently begun this transition to computer administration with online services. These online services can simplify administering, scoring, and interpreting assessments, thereby reducing barriers to instructors' use of RBAs. By supporting instructors' objective assessment of the efficacy of their courses, these services can stimulate instructors to transform their courses to improve student outcomes. We investigate the extent to which RBAs administered outside of class with the online Learning About STEM Student Outcomes (LASSO) platform provide equivalent data to tests administered on paper in class, in terms of both student participation and performance. We use an experimental design to investigate the differences between these two assessment conditions with 1310 students in 25 sections of 3 college physics courses spanning 2 semesters. Results: Analysis conducted using hierarchical linear models indicates that student performance on low-stakes RBAs is equivalent for online (out-of-class) and paper-and-pencil (in-class) administrations. The models also show differences in participation rates across assessment conditions and student grades, but that instructors can achieve participation rates with online assessments equivalent to paper assessments by offering students credit for participating and by providing multiple reminders to complete the assessment. Conclusions: We conclude that online out-of-class administration of RBAs can save class and instructor time while providing participation rates and performance results equivalent to in-class paper-and-pencil tests.
Historically, research on "underrepresented" students in physics is conducted primarily at Predominately White Institutions and has focused on two separate identities: gender or race. Because of this, the unique intersections experienced by Women of Color (WoC) has been largely ignored. In addition, research on the experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Queer (LGBTQ+) physicists in a collegiate setting is virtually non-existent. This paper will present common themes in the idea of who does physics through the lens of WoC and female LGBTQ+ physicists currently or recently enrolled in a Physics Program at a large Hispanic Serving Institution. Participants engaged in semi-structured interviews and were asked questions about their perceptions of their physics environments, available support systems, and how they described a physicist. The analysis employs the theory of Intersectionality and examines the narratives through a critical race and queer lens to fully understand the lived experiences of our participants.
Learning Assistants (LAs) have been shown to have better conceptual understanding and more favorable beliefs about science than non-LAs, and are more likely to choose a career in K-12 science teaching [1]. We propose that connections between elements of identity, persistence, and participation in an LA program can be explained using the concept of the community of practice and its intimate relationship to identity [2]. In separate work, Hazari et al. found that physics identity was highly correlated to expressed career plans in physics [3]. We hypothesize that a thriving LA program has many features of a well-functioning community of practice and contributes to all four elements of physics identity: personal interest, student performance, competence, and recognition by others. We explore how this analysis of the LA experience might shape decisions and influence outcomes of adoption and adaptations of the LA model.
Abstract. In what we call "embodied learning activities," instructors deliberately arrange for human bodies, or parts of the body, to stand in for entities in the description or explanation of a phenomenon. Embodied learning activities (ELAs) are intended to promote and externalize conceptual understanding in physics, for the benefit of the learner, the instructor, and the researcher. We describe an example of an embodied learning activity called "Energy Theater," in which each participant identifies as a unit of energy that has one and only one form. Objects in the scenario correspond to regions on the floor, and as energy moves and changes form in the scenario, participants move to different locations on the floor. This representation models energy as a substance-like quantity, a model that promotes concepts of conservation, storage, transfer, and flow. The activity becomes a richly featured disciplined symbolic workspace, supporting future studies for both description and analysis.
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