What’s happening in traditional and inquiry-based introductory labs? An integrative analysis at a large research university

Doucette, Danny; Clark, Russell D.; Singh, Chandralekha

doi:10.1119/perc.2018.pr.doucette

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…As a dependent variable, we rely on a categorization of E-CLASS items [35] that identified a cluster of 6 items as relevant to NoS in our context [36]. E-CLASS scores indicate the degree to which a student agrees with expert-like attitudes toward 30 items related to experimental science.…”

Section: Methodology and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

All aboard! Challenges and successes in professional development for physics lab TAs

Doucette¹,

Clark²,

Singh³

2020

2019 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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At large research universities in the USA, introductory physics labs are often run by graduate student teaching assistants (TAs). Thus, efforts to reform introductory labs should address the need for effective and relevant TA professional development. We developed and implemented a research-based professional development program that focuses on preparing TAs to effectively support inquiry-based learning in the lab. We identify positive effects by examining three possible ways in which the professional development might have impacted TAs and their work. First, we examine lab TAs' written reflections to understand the effect of the program on TAs' ways of thinking about student learning. Second, we observe and categorize TA-student interactions in the lab in order to investigate whether TA behaviors are changing after the professional development. Third, we examine students' attitudes toward experimental science and present one example case in which students' attitudes improve for those TAs who 'buy in' to the professional development. Our results suggest lab TA professional development may have a tangible positive impact on TA performance and student learning.

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Section: Methodology and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

All aboard! Challenges and successes in professional development for physics lab TAs

Doucette¹,

Clark²,

Singh³

2020

2019 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

Self Cite

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“…These survey questions were validated along with other constructs on a larger motivational survey using think-aloud individual interviews with students to ensure that students interpreted the questions correctly, factor analysis of student responses to ensure that the questions grouped into clusters as expected, as well as analysis of Cronbach's alpha for each factor and Pearson correlation amongst different factors [31]. In order to investigate how equal participation predicts peer effect on physics interest or peer effect on physics self-efficacy in a multiple linear regression model, we used gender and a selfefficacy construct extracted from E-CLASS [32,33] as controls to improve the explanatory power of the model. We note that the larger pool of data (300 men and 492 women) for how equal participation predicts peer effect on self-efficacy allowed smaller effects to manifest as statistically significant if they were present.…”

Section: An Even Split or An Equitable Distribution?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As noted earlier, we also analyzed responses to the E-CLASS survey [32], which students completed at the start and end of the semester, in order to control for students' selfefficacy in our linear regression models. We extracted a subset of four items from the E-CLASS that are related to the participants' own perceptions of their self-efficacy [33], shown in Table I.…”

Section: An Even Split or An Equitable Distribution?mentioning

confidence: 99%

What Makes a Good Physics Lab Partner?

Doucette¹,

Clark²,

Singh³

2020

2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Students who take lab courses engage in active, collaborative learning that has the potential to teach scientific thinking skills while also stimulating students' interest in science and developing their self-efficacy. We describe different types of collaboration in terms of the mutuality of engagement they represent, and investigate how these different types of collaboration impacted student interest and self-efficacy in introductory physics labs. We surveyed college physics students about their beliefs and experiences regarding working with a lab partner. We find that when asked explicitly about what they valued in a lab partner, a majority of students noted that they wanted a "fair split" of the work. However, we find that students experienced improved physics interest and self-efficacy when they participated equally in all aspects of the lab, such as operating the apparatus and recording the data, which is a different form of mutuality of engagement. This form of participation disproportionately benefited women, a traditionally disadvantaged group in physics labs. Our findings suggest that students' physics interest and self-efficacy might be positively impacted in lab courses that are designed to ensure that students participate equally in all aspects of the lab work, as opposed to lab courses in which students split up their work inequitably, as they might prefer to do.

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Highlighting considerations in experimental design: the case of multimeters

et al. 2021

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The instructional lab setting has been found to be dominated by prescribed tasks and pre-prepared lab kits. This was explained by teachers’ need to guide students to simultaneously progress through a lab curriculum, which prompts them to standardize the lab experience. Nevertheless, prominent professional associations have persistently called to better represent experimental research practices in the lab, and to grant students more agency in the experimental process by orienting them towards more open-ended lab experiences. This paper reports a lab activity designed to advance students’ agency in the practice of experimental design, in a setting governed by a high-stakes national matriculation exam. Three hundred teachers of advanced level high-school physics experienced the lab activity in a national network of professional learning communities (PLCs). The activity was anchored in an experiment to determine the relationship between the current through a battery and its terminal voltage. It was designed to problematize students’ considerations underlying the choices of the location of the voltmeter and the measuring scale of the ammeter, and the possible implications for the validity of the experimental results; e.g. control of the variables, as well as the range and the accuracy of measurements. Teachers first performed the lab activity as learners, discussed it in the PLC meeting, and finally reflected on their experience. Individual responses to the lab worksheets and the reflections were analyzed. Initially, teachers’ considerations did not portray key aspects related to the validity of the experimental results, such as how design choices related to the location of the voltmeter and the ammeter measuring scale impacted the accuracy and range of the measurements and the control of variables. The teachers were highly engaged in the peer discussion in the PLC and found the lab activity valuable in raising students’ awareness of important considerations in experimental design.

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What’s happening in traditional and inquiry-based introductory labs? An integrative analysis at a large research university

Cited by 4 publications

References 16 publications

All aboard! Challenges and successes in professional development for physics lab TAs

All aboard! Challenges and successes in professional development for physics lab TAs

What Makes a Good Physics Lab Partner?

Highlighting considerations in experimental design: the case of multimeters

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