Female students and those with a low socioeconomic status (SES) typically score lower in assessments of self-efficacy and ability in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In this study, a cohort of over 200 UK students attended an intensive, active learning, physics workshop, with pre- and postassessments to measure both physics self-efficacy and physics ability before and after the workshop. Our control took the form of material that was closely related but not covered during the workshop. Students benefited from attending the workshop, as self-efficacy and ability increased significantly in the post-test, with the material not covered showing the smallest increase as expected. A significant socioeconomic attainment gap in ability was completely alleviated for questions on material covered at both secondary and upper secondary level, but not for questions on material seen at upper secondary only. In contrast, although no overall significant initial gender gap in ability was found, despite female students having a lower mean score than male students, a gender gap was alleviated for material seen only at upper secondary level. Female and low SES students’ physics ability improved more than male and high SES students’ physics ability, respectively. The workshop particularly benefited students from a mildly underperforming demographic tackling the hardest questions, or students from a significantly underperforming demographic tackling intermediate questions but not the hardest questions. The already high levels of confidence in their abilities felt by the cohort (which was boosted further by the workshop) meant that none of the demographics considered were less self-efficacious than their peers; however, the self-efficacy of female students improved more than male students, but of high SES students more than low SES students. This study provides a valuable contribution toward understanding the interaction between the extent of underperforming and question difficulty, and the features from the Bootcamp can be easily transferred to other STEM subjects.

Two set of studies were conducted to better understand grades and grading practices in physics courses, and how these might influence demographic representational disparities in physics. The first study investigates the relationships between grades and the student-level factors of standardized test scores, (binary) gender, underrepresented minority (URM) status, first generation (FG) status, citizenship status, and age of over 20 000 students enrolled in algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. Consistent with other studies, we find differences in mean grades for all of these factors, except for gender, and when standardized test scores are included in a regression model predicting grades, the demographic differences in grades decreases, though typically remain nonzero. We also find gender by test score and URM by test score interactions when predicting grades. The second study examines grade component scores, and replicates the finding that compared to men, women achieve higher scores on nonexam components and lower scores on exam components. We also find that the gap in score between URM and FG students and their counterparts is less for non-exam components than for exam components. Because of these differentials in components, we compared different models of grade components weighting and find that women and URM students differentially benefit from stronger weighting of nonexam components. While the benefit to grades is relatively small, the relative shift in percentages of grade rates of A, D, and F can have dramatic differential shifts. We also find that while exam components are moderately strongly correlated with standardized tests scores, nonexam components are not. These results suggest that grade component weighting is inevitably tied to issues of demographic equity, in the sense that altering the weights may change demographic disparities in grades and change the dependency of grades on standardized test scores. We conclude with a call for more attention to grading practices and what is rewarded in introductory physics courses.

Recruiting high-quality physics teachers for low-socioeconomic status (SES) schools is essential for ensuring equity but is challenging globally. China launched a four-year program to meet the challenge by providing free education and stipends and promising a career position to attract high-performance secondary graduates, while using a contract to constrain participants to serve 10 years as K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers, with the first two years in low-SES rural schools. This program had recruited more than 101 000 preservice teachers in all academic areas, and more than 90% went to teach in low-SES rural schools. In this paper, we clustered participant physics teachers according to their motivation to serve low-SES schools and commented that the use of the “carrot and stick” policy has both positive and negative effects. On one side, the preservice teachers who had higher motivation for serving low-SES communities increased their motivation significantly during the four-year professional learning; on the other side, a portion of teachers who had lower initial motivation failed to develop adequate motivation. Even though the carrot and stick model seems to achieve its established goal, we argue that the “carrot-stick” policy may need adjustment and that the implications from this preservice teacher policy are useful for developing policies in other countries.

Simulations and virtual or remote laboratories are increasingly used in schools. The extent to which individual experimental skills can be acquired when experimenting in digital applications is, however, questionable. This paper focuses on finding multimedia features for digital experiments to support the transfer of measured values from the laboratory system to a diagram. Beside physical considerations, spatial translation processes could be crucial for a successful assignment. Therefore, the influence of the subjects’ spatial ability is examined. Using a pretest post-test design ($N=119$), the effects of training with supportive animation (animation group) and training with an interactive task and feedback (interactive group) were tested. The results of both groups were each compared to those of a reference group. Eye tracking data were recorded during training to investigate the origin of different training effects. Hence, fixations and saccades during training were analyzed. For the investigation of the distribution of the saccadic movements, polar diagrams were used in combination with estimated probability density functions. The results show that the score in the pretest is correlated to the score achieved in the card rotation test, which measures the spatial rotation skills of the subjects. Further, the subjects in the interactive group benefited from the training more than the subjects in the reference group did. There were no significant differences in the effect of the training between the animation group and the reference group. Eye tracking data reveal that the training in the interactive group caused the most comparative eye movements between the laboratory system and the diagram. The training in the animation group led to the highest visual attention; however, subjects in this group concentrated on the dynamic elements. These results indicate that especially students with weak spatial skills need additional support when transferring measured values from the laboratory system to the diagram. This assignment can be practiced in computer-based experiments, in particular with an interactive training task and feedback. Additionally, the analysis showed that the training is equally suitable for learners with different spatial abilities. A corresponding task was implemented into a virtual laboratory.

In this mixed-methods study of large enrollment introductory physics service courses, I investigated students’ perception and use of online education resources as supplements to course-provided materials and activities. Specifically, I focused on the increasing use of popular free online media resources such as YouTube and Khan Academy, and fee-based textbook solution repository services such as Chegg. In the quantitative portion of this study, I surveyed students from three courses on their textbook and online resource usage and found that most students relied primarily on online resources as they navigated the courses, and comparatively few used the textbook regularly. In the qualitative portion, I investigated the patterns and culture of textbook and online resource usage via semistructured interviews and found that students reported using online resources as supplements to, or in place of, the course-provided materials when engaging with online homework or studying for an exam. Students reported using online resources productively to guide learning efforts, but also acknowledged unproductive uses such as copying solutions to mitigate loss of assignment points. I provide suggestions for changes in course materials, practices, and expectations to better engage students in the course and in their learning.

Items that are chained, or blocked, together appear on many of the conceptual assessments utilized for physics education research. However, when items are chained together there is the potential to introduce local dependence between those items, which would violate the assumption of item independence required by classical test theory, unidimensional item response theory, and other measurement theories. Local dependence can be divided into two categories: (i) underlying local dependence, which can be adequately modeled with multidimensional measurement theories, and (ii) surface local dependence (SLD), which cannot be modeled using multidimensional measurement theories. The act of chaining items is thought to be one of the many potential sources of SLD between items. Using previous local dependence research results, this study proposes two methods for detecting the presence of local dependence and SLD between items on an assessment. These methods were applied to the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE). It was found that the assumption of item independence was violated for both assessments, implying that unidimensional measurement theories may not adequately model either the FCI or FMCE. Further, both detection methods identified the potential for a minimal amount of SLD present for FCI and a significant amount of SLD present for the FMCE. This implies that even multidimensional measurement theories may not be capable of adequately modeling the FMCE when scoring items individually. This result supports the claim made by Thornton et al. that the items on the FMCE should be scored in groups; however, the currently proposed grading scheme was found to be inadequate.

We present a framework designed to help categorize various sense making moves, allowing for greater specificity in describing and understanding student reasoning and also in the development of curriculum to support this reasoning. The framework disaggregates between the mechanisms of student reasoning (the cognitive tool that they are employing) and what they are reasoning about (the object). Noting that either the tool or object could be mathematical or physical, the framework includes four basic sense making modes: Use of a mathematical tool to understand a mathematical object, use of a mathematical tool to understand a physical object, use of a physical tool to understand a mathematical object, and use of a physical tool to understand a physical object. We identify three fundamental processes by which these modes may be combined (translation, chaining, and coordination) and present a visual representation that captures both the individual reasoning modes and the processes by which they are combined. The utility of the framework as a tool for describing student reasoning is demonstrated through the analysis of two extended reasoning episodes. Finally, implications of this framework for curricular design are discussed.

Problem-solving categorization tasks have been well studied and used as an effective tool for assessment of student knowledge structure. In this study, a traditional free-response categorization test has been modified into a multiple-choice format, and the effectiveness of this new assessment is evaluated. Through randomized testing with Chinese college students, the multiple-choice categorization test has been shown to provide equivalent measurement compared to the open-ended test. In addition, the influence of including diagrams in problems on students’ categorization performances has also been studied, which suggests that the inclusion of diagrams in problems can improve students’ performances in identifying the relevant concepts. The results also show that the knowledge structures of the Chinese college students are in the early transitional stage between novices and experts.

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in using virtual reality (VR) technology to benefit instruction, especially in physics and related subjects. As VR devices improve and become more widely available, there remains a number of unanswered questions regarding the impact of VR on student learning and how best to use this technology in the classroom. On the topic of electrostatics, for example, a large, controlled, randomized study performed by Smith et al. [A controlled study of stereoscopic virtual reality in freshman electrostatics, Proceedings of the 2017 Physics Education Research Conference, Cincinnati, OH, PER Conference series (2017), pp. 376–379], found that VR-based instruction had an overall negligible impact on student learning compared to videos or images. However, they did find a strong trend for students who reported frequent video game play to learn better from VR than other media. One possible interpretation of this result is that extended videogame play provides a kind of “training” that enables a student to learn more comfortably in the virtual environment. In the present work we consider if a VR training activity that is unrelated to electrostatics can help prepare students to learn electrostatics from subsequent VR instruction. We find that preliminary VR training leads to a small but statistically significant improvement in student performance on our electrostatics assessment. We also find that student reported game play is still correlated with higher scores on this metric.

We present an investigation into the interdisciplinary role of physics in a physics-for-nonphysicists course at Pomona College. This work is guided by prior research into introductory physics for life science (IPLS) courses, but attends to significant differences in the scope and context of this course. We interviewed enrolled students, physics professors, and professors from nonphysics disciplines to explore the function of this course and the role of physics in the education of nonphysics science students. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed, then analyzed to identify emergent themes. These themes outline the authentic physics, including content knowledge and other, broader learning objectives, that play an important and distinct role in the science education of enrolled students. Stakeholders generally align in their emphasis of interdisciplinary relevance with some divergence in the specific articulation of that idea. The differences can be understood through the stakeholders’ distinct areas of expertise, with nonphysics professors expressing value through relevance to their discipline and physics professors focusing on essential aspects of physics.

Physics, as a foundational science, has particular importance in predicting the postsecondary success of students who major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This quasiexperimental, observational study examined teacher-level and school-level predictors of student performance in physics, with a focus on isolated teachers. A New York State case study is useful since the teacher certification policy is largely determined at the state level in the U.S. The overall sample included New York State public schools that offered physics ($N=960$), physics teachers ($N=1584$), and student physics test takers ($N=47734$) in the academic year 2016–2017. Teacher-level variables included the content preparation and certification of physics teachers, physics course load, professional age (years of experience), whether the teacher was isolated, whether the teacher taught mathematics, and whether the teacher taught Advanced Placement Physics; and school-level variables including physics standardized test passing rates, school size, socioeconomic status, locale, and physics course taking ratio. Data were collected from a variety of publicly available sources that were verified by state education agencies. Results indicated a significant proportion (40%) of physics teachers were isolated, and their students tended to have weaker physics performance scores than students of nonisolated teachers. Compared to the nonisolated teachers, a larger percentage of isolated physics teachers were uncertified in physics and taught in urban and rural schools. There was no significant difference in professional age between isolated and nonisolated teachers, but urban teachers had less teaching experience than suburban and rural physics teachers. When analyzing the subset of isolated teachers ($n=449$), a multiple linear regression model indicated urban locale and school-level socioeconomic status were the main negative predictors of student physics performance, while rural physics locale and professional age were positive predictors of physics performance; the model explained 38% of the variance, a large effect. Teaching experience acted as a mediator of poverty and urban locale in predicting student physics performance with a small effect size. Implications related to equity considerations and physics education policy are discussed.

Undergraduate physics laboratory course structures have been identified in policy reports for novel design innovations to meet the needs of a diverse and growing student population. To this end, an online, hands-on laboratory option was implemented at a large, public university for introductory physics students using the iOLab device. To determine whether students in this new course structure had similar perspectives to their in-person counterparts in terms of select attitudinal measures, a quasiexperimental, observational quantitative study was undertaken to measure students’ epistemological views as well as their beliefs about socialization and help seeking in online and in-person laboratory environments. Undergraduate students who were enrolled in calculus-based introductory physics ($N=998$) were surveyed in the second half of the semester to elicit their epistemological beliefs about physics laboratory work and their views on social engagement and academic help seeking in the laboratory. Parametric and nonparametric comparisons of central tendency were employed to measure differences between students in the in-person and online laboratories, as well as gender differences and associated interaction effects. Students showed no overall differences in attitudes related to epistemological and help seeking beliefs. There were significant differences related to views of socialization; students taking in-person physics laboratories valued socialization more than students taking the course online. Gender differences in epistemological and help seeking beliefs were identified overall, however, these differences were no longer significant when examining the interactions of laboratory type and gender. This finding suggests that self-selection into laboratory type may diminish gender gaps in affective domains by allowing students to choose the laboratory structure that meets their learning and logistical needs. In terms of physics epistemology, socialization and help seeking in the laboratory may not be as important to students’ perceptions of physics knowledge acquisition as previously thought. This study provides insights into the feasibility of online, hands-on laboratory experiences to meet the affective goals articulated in in-person laboratories, as well as institutional recommendations for advising students to select courses that match their individual learning styles.

Studies on physics identity have shown that it is one of the main factors that can predict a person’s persistence in the field; therefore, studying physics identity is critical to increase diversity within the field of physics and to understand what changes can allow more women and minorities to identify with the field. In this study, we investigate informal physics programs as spaces for physics identity exploration. These programs provide unique conditions under which to study physics identity development along with other identities. Informal physics spaces allow for voluntary engagement, as well as elements of agency and autonomy within the exploration of physics. Thus, these spaces allow an identity to form outside of the constraints traditionally found in academic settings. In this work, we operationalized the community of practice framework to study the development of physics identities within university students who facilitate informal physics programs. We present the stories from two physics graduate students out of our sample to provide a context for testing the feasibility of the extended framework and to identify how experiences within an informal physics program can shape physics identity development. This paper presents the operationalized constructs within the community of practice framework, how these constructs are applied to the narrated experiences of our participants and highlights how we can use this framework to understand the nuances of physics identity development as well as the factors that can influence that development.

In deciding on a student’s grade in a class, an instructor generally needs to combine many individual grading judgments into one overall judgment. Two relatively common numerical scales used to specify individual grades are the 4-point scale (where each whole number 0–4 corresponds to a letter grade) and the percent scale (where letter grades A through D are uniformly distributed in the top 40% of the scale). This paper uses grading data from a single series of courses offered over a period of 10 years to show that the grade distributions emerging from these two grade scales differed in many ways from each other. Evidence suggests that the differences are due more to the grade scale than to either the students or the instructors. One major difference is that the fraction of students given grades less than $\mathrm{C}-$ was over 5 times larger when instructors used the percent scale. The fact that each instructor who used both grade scales gave more than 4 times as many of these low grades under percent scale grading suggests that the effect is due to the grade scale rather than the instructor. When the percent scale was first introduced in these courses in 2006, one of the authors of this paper, who is also one of the instructors in this dataset, had confidently predicted that any changes in course grading would be negligible. They were not negligible, even for this instructor.

Though several conceptual inventories have been developed for thermal physics, none target upper-division material and all focus specifically on thermodynamics without including statistical mechanics content. In this paper, we outline the development process of an upper-division thermal physics assessment that captures both thermodynamics and statistical mechanics content. To ensure that the assessment can be broadly usable, as a first step in this process, we administered a survey to physics faculty to determine the scope and content variability of thermal physics courses across institutions. We received over 70 responses from 63 unique institutions, approximately half of which are minority-serving institutions and women’s colleges. Our findings support the claim that there is significant variation in the content covered at different institutions, but also some general agreement on a number of core content areas. We identified 10 key topics which were listed by the majority (95%) of survey respondents to focus on for the assessment development process. We then wrote assessment objectives that encompass core content goals within these 10 topics, which guided the writing of free-response assessment items that were piloted with students. Using student responses to the free-response items, we developed multiple-response versions, which includes both multiple-choice and coupled, multiple-response items. In this paper, we present details of the faculty survey, including methods of developing and distributing the survey to solicit a broad range of perspectives. Additionally, we present results of the survey, including core content covered by faculty in upper-division thermal physics courses, and discuss how these results were used to guide development of assessment objectives and assessment items. We include the full development process of one assessment item as an example.

This article shares analysis regarding quantum mechanics students’ metarepresentational competence (MRC) that is expressed as they engaged in solving an expectation value problem, which involves linear algebra concepts. The particular characteristic of MRC that is the focus of this analysis is students’ critiquing and comparing the adequacy of representations, specifically matrix notation and Dirac notation, and judging their suitability for various tasks. With data of students’ work during semistructured individual interviews, components of students’ MRC were analyzed and categorized according to value-based preferences, problem-based preferences, and purpose and utility awareness. Detail is provided on two students who serve as paradigmatic examples of students’ power and flexibility within different notation systems, and detail of a third student is given as a point of contrast. In addition to adapting MRC as a helpful construct for characterizing student understanding at the intersection of undergraduate mathematics and physics, we aim to demonstrate how students’ rich understanding of linear algebra and quantum mechanics includes and is aided by their understanding and flexible use of different notational systems. For example, the problem-based preference aspects of MRC highlight that any particular problem-solving approach is itself intrinsically tied to a notational system. We suggest that any instruction with the goal of helping students develop a deep understanding of quantum mechanics and linear algebra should provide opportunities for students to use and improve their MRC.

Educators and education researchers in postsecondary physics have rarely centered (i.e., intentionally directed attention to) the experiences of students with disabilities, leading to an instructional environment that is not designed to support students with disabilities. In this study, we interviewed five students who identified with the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and were enrolled in introductory physics courses at a public four-year institution. We framed our investigation with a social relational perspective of disability, which posits that an individual’s impairments (referred to as diagnosis characteristics in this paper) interact with social structures to result in disabling barriers (i.e., characteristics of social structures which prevent equal access for individuals with disabilities). We analyzed interview transcripts with interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). We found that the participating students discussed diagnosis characteristics including difficulties with focus, being prone to distractions, difficulties with keeping mental track of tasks and structures, and thinking often about abstract concepts. Diagnosis characteristics identified as challenges could result in negative self-perceptions, possibly as a result of internalized ableism. However, students also expressed that understanding their diagnosis led to benefits such as making more informed choices about their study strategies (e.g., using a planner or chunking their studying time). In alignment with our social relational perspective of disability, we found that course design could support or hinder participants’ ability to use their preferred planning or studying strategies. We also found that students experienced increased barriers in their physics courses compared to other courses, specifically due to the increased time needed to process information and a lack of guidance for how to effectively study content for conceptual understanding. SCALE-UP courses introduced supports due to increased student autonomy but could also introduce barriers due to increased distractions. We present recommendations that instructors can implement to increase course supports. Researchers need to continue to center the experiences of students with disabilities in STEM courses so that researchers and practitioners can identify disciplinarily specific strategies to support student engagement and learning.

In this work we present the application of design based research (DBR) methodology to conduct a systematic iterative study of the design and implementation of a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) on emf (electromotive force). This work is the final part of a broader study that started with the analysis of students’ difficulties with emf in the contexts of transitory current, direct current, and electromagnetic induction. We complete our research by investigating to what extent students see emf as a cross-cutting concept. We establish the design parameters based on an epistemological analysis and the empirical data, and describe how we devised and implemented the first version of the TLS that takes 4.5 h of classroom time. We analyze the data obtained in the first implementation and describe the redesign process that resulted in a second version of the TLS that takes 1.5 h of classroom time. We conclude that both versions of the TLS effect a similar boost in student attainment of learning objectives compared to the control group.

Professional problem-solving practice in physics and engineering relies on mathematical sense making—reasoning that leverages coherence between formal mathematics and conceptual understanding. A key question for physics education is how well current instructional approaches develop students’ mathematical sense making. We introduce an assessment paradigm that operationalizes a typically unmeasured dimension of mathematical sense making: use of calculations on qualitative problems and use of conceptual arguments on quantitative problems. Three assessment items embodying this calculation-concept crossover assessment paradigm illustrate how mathematical sense making can positively benefit students’ problem solving, leading to more efficient, insightful, and accurate solutions. These three assessment items were used to evaluate the efficacy of an instructional approach focused on developing students’ mathematical sense making skills. In a quasi-experimental study, three parallel lecture sections of first-semester, introductory physics were compared: two mathematical sense making sections, one with an experienced instructor and one with a novice instructor, and a traditionally taught section, as a control group. Compared to the control group, mathematical sense making groups used calculation-concept crossover approaches more often and gave more correct answers on the crossover assessment items, but they did not give more correct answers to associated standard problems. In addition, although students’ postcourse epistemological views on problem-solving coherence were associated with their crossover use, they did not fully account for the differences in crossover approach use between the mathematical sense making and control groups. These results demonstrate a new assessment paradigm for detecting a typically unmeasured dimension of mathematical sense making and provide evidence that a targeted instructional approach can enhance engagement with mathematical sense making in introductory physics.

With limited time available in the classroom, $e$-learning tools can supplement in-class learning by providing opportunities for students to study and learn outside of class. Such tools can be especially helpful for students who lack adequate prior preparation. However, one critical issue is ensuring that students, especially those in need of additional help, engage with the tools as intended. Here we first discuss an empirical investigation in which students in a large algebra-based physics course were given opportunities to work through research-validated tutorials outside of class as self-study tools. Students were provided these optional tutorials after traditional instruction in relevant topics and were then given quizzes that included problems that were identical to the tutorial problems with regard to the physics principles involved but had different contexts. We find that students who worked through the tutorials as self-study tools struggled to transfer their learning to solve problems that used the same physics principles. On the other hand, students who worked on the tutorials in supervised, one-on-one situations performed significantly better than them. These empirical findings suggest that many introductory physics students may not engage effectively with self-paced learning tools unless they are provided additional incentives and support, e.g., to aid with self-regulation. Inspired by the empirical findings, we propose a holistic theoretical framework to help create learning environments in which students with diverse backgrounds are provided support to engage effectively with self-study tools.