What Works for Women in Undergraduate Physics?

Whitten, Barbara; Foster, Suzanne R.; Duncombe, Margaret L.

doi:10.1063/1.1620834

Cited by 45 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Beyond that, Whitten, Foster, and Duncombe's [26] research points toward the use of creating a supportive department culture in order to help female physicists persist in the field. Two interviewees stated that departmental or advisor support can have either a substantial positive or negative impact upon work-life balance and participation in activities outside of school.…”

Section: Departmental Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female physicist doctoral experiences

Dabney

Tai

2013

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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The underrepresentation of women in physics doctorate programs and in tenured academic positions indicates a need to evaluate what may influence their career choice and persistence. This qualitative paper examines eleven females in physics doctoral programs and professional science positions in order to provide a more thorough understanding of why and how women make career choices based on aspects both inside and outside of school and their subsequent interaction. Results indicate that female physicists experience conflict in achieving balance within their graduate school experiences and personal lives and that this then influences their view of their future careers and possible career choices. Female physicists report both early and longterm support outside of school by family, and later departmental support, as being essential to their persistence within the field. A greater focus on informal and out-of-school science activities for females, especially those that involve family members, early in life may help influence their entrance into a physics career later in life. Departmental support, through advisers, mentors, peers, and women's support groups, with a focus on work-life balance can help females to complete graduate school and persist into an academic career.

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Section: Departmental Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female physicist doctoral experiences

Dabney

Tai

2013

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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“…Expanding our understanding of student classroom community also links to research on retention and persistence, which highlights the importance of learningrelated social ties [7]. Study of departments that graduate numerous physicists from underrepresented groups, such as women, also indicates that a supportive department culture is a common factor [8]. Courses that foster student community can contribute to this environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community structure in introductory physics course networks

Traxler¹

2015

2015 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Student-to-student interactions are foundational to many active learning environments, but are most often studied using qualitative methods. Quantitative network analysis tools complement this picture, allowing researchers to describe the social interactions of whole classrooms as systems. Past results in introductory physics have suggested a sharp division in the formation of social structure between large lecture sections and small studio classroom environments. Extending those results, this study focuses on calculus-based introductory physics courses at a large public university with a heavily commuter and nontraditional student population. Community detection network methods are used to characterize pre-and post-course collaborative structure in several sections, and differences are considered between small and large classes. These results are compared with expectations from earlier findings, and comment on implications for instruction and further study.

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“…Low percentage of girls who opt for science and technology courses at the higher educational level, and a small number of women in the professions related to science and technology at both industrial and academic levels, is a well recognized phenomenon [7,18]. It might suggest that men and women have a significantly different attitude towards understanding of physics and mathematics which makes less likely that girls will choose a physics at a higher educational level or that they will build a positive attitude towards physics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Many high-school students don't want to study physics: active learning experiences can change this negative attitude!

Maruić¹,

Sliko

2012

Rev. Bras. Ensino Fís.

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Many high-school students don't want to study physics: active learning experiences can change this negative attitude! A two-question survey has been prepared for and applied in this research with aim to assess the relative efficiency of two different teaching methods, called Reading, Presenting and Questioning (RPQ) and Experimenting and Discussion (ED), in changing students' attitudes toward physics as a potential career choice. The data of a one-semester-long high-school project indicate that RPQ group (91 students) has not achieved a statistically significant improvement in attitudes, while the ED group (85 students) got an improvement of +10,0%. Theses results suggest that the ED method, based on active physics learning paradigm, is a good model for a significant improvement of students' attitudes toward physics as a potential career choice, both with girls and boys who study high school physics. Keywords: active physics learning, predict-observe-explain, observe-explain-predict-observe, physics as a professional choice, gender and physics learning.Uum questionário de duas perguntas foi preparadao e aplicado neste trabalho com o intuito de avaliar a eficiência relativa de dois métodos de aprendizagem, viz. Ler, Apresentar, Questionar (LAQ) e Experimentação, Discussão (ED), em mudar a atitude de estudantes em relaçãoà potencial escolha de física como carreira. Os dados de um projeto de um semestre realizado em nível de ensino médio indica que os grupo LAQ (91 estudantes) não teve uma mudança de atitute estatisticamente signficativa, ao passo que o grupo ED (85 estudantes) teve uma melhora de +10,0%. Estes resultados sugerem que o método ED, baseado em um paradigma de aprendizagem ativa de física,é um bom modelo para se melhorar significativamente a atitude dos estudantes perante a física enquanto uma potencial carreira profissional, independentemente do sexo dos estudantes.

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What Works for Women in Undergraduate Physics?

Abstract: The predominance of men in physics remains a puzzle. To attract talented women and minorities, the culture of college physics needs a makeover.

Cited by 45 publications

References 4 publications

Female physicist doctoral experiences

Female physicist doctoral experiences

Community structure in introductory physics course networks

Many high-school students don't want to study physics: active learning experiences can change this negative attitude!

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