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Prior work has established the existence of a color-performance relationship in achievement contexts and has demonstrated its presence in some undergraduate course examinations. This study examines the manifestation of such a relationship in an introductory, 430-student, calculus-based electricity and magnetism course during which the paper color used in examinations was varied. In this report, we analyze three separate exams and differentiate between students' multiple choice, written response, conceptual, and computational performances. Also considered are factors such as the time students require to complete exams and their confidence levels prior to and immediately following assessment. Performance in all categories appears to be independent of paper color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of computer-based test instruments (Computer-Based Tests = CBT) in measuring conceptual knowledge and character of student in General Physics course. This research is a type of descriptive research. The data are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysed data consist of conceptual knowledge and character of student on test using a computer (CBT) and written exams (Paper-Based Testing = PBT) as comparisons including students' responses to the implementation of the test. The designed research instruments are test instrument based on CBT and PBT as well as a user response questionnaire. The results show that students' conceptual knowledge of physics using CBT is higher than PBT, although the scores are not significantly different. On the other hand, the results of the integration assessment test of student character values consist of indicators accuracy, perseverance, honesty and confidence show that the value of student character using CBT are also higher than PBT. In addition, the results of the manager's response analysis test show that the use of CBT provides several positive impacts compared to the use of PBT such as reducing paper use, reducing exam administration funds, easy in correcting questions, presenting test results easily and quickly, correcting questions accurately, and the last, the use of CBT is more objective and more friendly to the environment due to paperless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present an alternative perspective to physics expertise research. Using Lave and Wenger's theoretical perspective of Legitimate Peripheral Participation [4] as a guide to understanding expertise development, we redefine expertise from the perspective of physicists. We analyze data from an ethnographic, qualitative study of a physics research group and draw data from multiple sources to triangulate a definition of expert. Results show that a very critical part of becoming a physics expert in this physics research group is communicating one's scientific ideas through writing. Students perceive scientific writing as an important aspect of participating in the research group and it is a significant discussion point in the research meetings. Thus, it appears that learning to write a scientific paper is a process congruent to developing physics expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present design guidelines for using Adapted Primary Literature (APL) as part of current interdisciplinary topics to introductory physics students. APL is a text genre that allows students to comprehend a scientific article, while maintaining the core features of the communication among scientists, thus representing an authentic scientific discourse. We describe the adaptation of a research paper by Nobel Laureate Paul Flory on phase equilibrium in polymer-solvent mixtures that was presented to high school students in a project-based unit on soft matter. The adaptation followed two design strategies: a) Making explicit the interplay between the theory and experiment. b) Re-structuring the text to map the theory onto the students' prior knowledge. Specifically, we map the theory of polymer-solvent systems onto a model for binary mixtures of small molecules of equal size that was already studied in class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe formation of professional competence of future construction engineers and its content essence, their role and importance in the preparation for professional activity, the fact that physics is the main fundamental science in the training of civil engineers and its integration with the general engineering sciences. Based on the specifics of vocational guidance and specialization of students in the field of construction, we present instructions and recommendations to organize lectures, practical, laboratory classes and independent work effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers are faced with numerous challenges from parents, stakeholders of education and society in general due to poor consistence failure of students in physics in Nigeria. Moreover, the global instructional practices are moving towards student centered learning, unfortunately limited knowledge of the instructional practices is prevailing in Nigeria. It became imperative for researchers to investigate this predicament to arrive to a lasting solution. This paper describes a study of the relationship between teaching conceptions and critical thinking of Nigerian physics teachers in inquiry-based learning classrooms. The study involved a survey on 90 physics teachers in Kebbi state secondary schools from a population of 120 physics teachers. The instruments used were Promoting Inquiry-Based Learning in Science and Mathematics questionnaire (PRIMAS) and Lawson Classroom Test for Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) to measure their teaching conceptions and critical thinking. A multiple regression model was generated which indicated that critical thinking has a significant relationship over the physics teachers teaching conceptions in inquiry-based learning classrooms. Physics teachers who are good in critical thinking are likely to inspire a more active form of teaching and learning in the classroom. Therefore, more emphasis should be given on the Physics teachers' critical thinking to foster inquiry-based learning used in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with such problems as a career identity among the youth, involving, and encouragement of high school students to take part in practice-oriented, project-based, research, and research-based activities. The paper describes the experience of workshops held using the electronic construction set called "Expert in 999 Circuits". Due to the workshops, the school students receive advanced knowledge in subjects of general education, using the interdisciplinary approach, and develop skills to solve tasks with circuit breakers that students themselves might design and build, using the opportunity to check the findings of analytical calculations by experiment. The workshop has contributed to acquiring broadened and deepened knowledge in physics among students, learning operating principles of electrical and semiconductor devices and their applications, as well as operating principles and the specifics of circuit schematic capture and computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender imbalance impedes the participation of women in physics. The number of women in physics in Zimbabwe remains very low relative to men. The few women who graduate with BSc degrees in physics change professions or fields of study owing to the country's economic hardships. This paper provides enrollment statistics of undergraduate physics students at five institutions in the country. Some institutions have kept track of their alumni, including a female physicist working as physics lecturer in Zimbabwe and female physicists working in geophysics and medical physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uganda has nine operational public universities offering degrees in sciences including physics. Only four of these universities offer graduate-level physics degrees. In this paper, we examine the gender gap in enrollment of students in physics over the past five years, which later translates into occupations in physics and STEM fields in general in Uganda. Generally, the total number of students studying physics is low compared to those studying other subjects, and very few of these physics students are female. Likewise the number of female academic staff is very low, and even these few have low qualifications compared to their male counterparts. The factors influencing gender disparity in physics at universities examined include gender roles, social perception, and gender-irresponsive pedagogical approaches. The current ongoing government interventions and other strategies that can be employed to narrow the physics gender gap highlighted are reviewing of curriculum to make it more gender responsive, increasing opportunities in physics and mindset change of the teachers and the local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of undergraduate students enrolled in physics programs in Ecuador, including their motivation to pursue the subject, areas of interest, and suggestions to increase the number of women in the field. Further, we update the information of Ecuadorian female physicists to show their academic achievements and experiences during the process. Both students and professional physicists agree that it is essential to raise awareness of female Ecuadorian physicists' work to motivate other women to study physics in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the status of women in physics in the present Yemen Crisis. We present the progress of women in physics for BSc/MSc students and as well as for female faculty members. The political situation has had negative effects on the participation of female students in physics. The percentage of women in physics has decreased compared with previous findings. On the other hand, the female teaching staff with doctoral degrees has increased not only in Sana’a University but also in other universities around Yemen. The consequence of the unstable and deteriorating situation of Yemen is the migration of academics to neighboring countries seeking better living standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has developed computer-assisted recitation program to improve students’ conceptual understanding on rotational dynamics. The program consisted of multiple choices questions with immediately feedback following each option. Each question was designed to uncover common students’ naïve conceptions. The questions covered the concepts of rotational kinematics; relation of torque, moment of inertia, and angular acceleration; rolling motions; angular momentum; conservation of angular momentum; and rigid object in equilibrium. The program was piloted to 40 undergraduate students of physics education enrolled introductory physics in State University of Malang. This paper reports the effectiveness of the program based on the analysis of the students’ scores on pretest and posttest. The result showed that the program significantly improved students’ conceptual understanding with very high d-effect size (2.06) and n-gain (0.438). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an overview of multimedia-based teaching tools and teaching methods tested during several introductory physics courses taught to students enrolled in physics, science, and pre-engineering programs at the University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge AB, Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At Florida International University we have been experimenting with a novel exam format. We have been giving our introductory physics students a group exam followed by an individual exam that contains transfer questions related to the group exam. The group exam requires students to work together on a difficult new problem. This format reflects one of our primary learning goals for our students: to be able to learn physics on their own. Videos of the group exam reveal that students are highly collaborative and engage in productive learning activities; such as, sense-making and constructing new representations. The question addressed in this paper is: Is students' participation in the group exam related to their ability to transfer their knowledge to the embedded questions? We present analysis that shows that students' ability to transfer their knowledge is related to how much they participate and more subtly, how they participate in sense-making and representational activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a larger study into upper-level physics student identity development that is currently underway students were questioned about their conception of understanding. Contained with this paper are the results for students' conceptions of understanding which correlate significantly to those found by Waterhouse and Prosser [2]. However, having carried out pilot interviews of the interview protocol used to examine identity and cognitive development, the researchers noticed a large frequency in the amount of students that indicated their conception of understanding to be 'when you can explain it to others or yourself.' This prompted a further examination of this conception of understanding via phenomenographic interview and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pathway Active Learning Environment synthetic tutoring system is capable of collecting large numbers of students' short responses to open-ended questions. The analysis of these responses may provide insight into the utility of the system, as well as information about student understanding of physics. The free-response nature of our data lends itself to qualitative analysis, however large data sets benefit from automated analysis. Natural language processing and data mining approaches, such as clustering, have been of interest across a variety of fields for automating the analysis of qualitative data. However, content-specific vocabulary, an abundance of search features, some of which are irrelevant, and inherent limitations on computers' abilities to match meaning are challenges that must be overcome. In this paper we discuss an analysis protocol for training computer models for automated data analysis. The preliminary analysis of two sample questions is presented, demonstrating a baseline of success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In schema-based theories of cognition, vertical transfer occurs when a learner constructs a new schema to solve a transfer task or chooses between several possible schemas. Vertical transfer is interesting to study, but difficult to measure. Did the student solve the problem using the desired schema or by an alternative method? Perhaps the problem cued the student to use certain resources without knowing why? In this paper, we consider some of the threats to validity in problem design. We provide a theoretical framework to explain the challenges faced in designing vertical transfer problems, and we contrast these challenges with horizontal transfer problem design. We have developed this framework from a set of problems that we tested on introductory mechanics students, and we illustrate the framework using one of the problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, the Working Group for Women in Physics (WGWIP) in Taiwan was registered within the Physical Society of Republic of China (renamed the Physical Society of Taiwan in 2017) and became a formal committee in 2003. Since then, the committee has worked on promoting women physicists and monitoring statistics on the status of progress. According to data collected by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan, the percentage of women graduated from physics and astronomy departments is around 14% in bachelor’s, 17% in master’s, and 13% in PhD programs. The inclination of young female students to choose a physics major has not changed much in the past few years. The numbers of female faculty members have improved slightly. About 77% female faculty are now in tenured positions, but the overall percentage of women in physics and astronomy departments has varied little in the last 10 years. The approved science projects granted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in Taiwan for female physicists demonstrate the tendency of increasing budgets. In this paper, we present the results of our survey and discuss the required directions for our future steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physics courses ideally facilitate both students understanding of fundamental physical principles, as well as strengthen students' problem solving repertoire. In this study we look at how students divide and/or aggregate various elements of problem statements and how useful distinct principles and concepts, formulae, and general problem contexts are for pairing problems assigned in the same week. Students in an algebra-based physics course were asked to choose two problems from each of their homework assignments which they found to be most similar. The two problems selected were then explicitly compared and contrasted in writing. The written statements were then divided by clause topics and further categorized into levels of epistemic reasoning. This paper presents the qualitative analysis used and provides observed trends that appear in students' homework responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that a physics course typically culminates in one final grade for the student, many instructors and researchers believe that there are multiple skills that students acquire to achieve mastery. Assessment validation and data analysis in general may thus benefit from extension to multidimensional ability. This paper introduces an approach for model determination and dimensionality analysis using collaborative filtering (CF), which is related to factor analysis and item response theory (IRT). Model selection is guided by machine learning perspectives, seeking to maximize the accuracy in predicting which students will answer which items correctly. We apply the CF to response data for the Mechanics Baseline Test and combine the results with prior analysis using unidimensional IRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the revision of the University Physics laboratory at Western Kentucky University. Multiple learning objectives were negotiated among faculty, and a curriculum was developed to address all of them. A full pilot was run in Spring 2012 with three experimental sections and two control sections. Data was collected using the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation, a self-efficacy survey, and performance on the laboratory final. Data from the pilot shows gains in conceptual understanding on certain topics, differences in a few laboratory skills, and improvement in technical writing ability as measured by both a writing sample and student perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by a paper at last year's PERC conference, in which Rebello [1] compared students' individual and cohort mean score estimations with their actual assessment scores, we present results of a study in which students in an introductory physics class were asked to predict their scores on two assessments, one delivered at the start of the course (pre-instruction) and one at the end of the course (post-instruction). Our results show that, pre-instruction, the academically strongest students tend to underestimate their score slightly, whereas the weakest overestimate their performance significantly, consistent with the findings of Rebello and demonstrating a well-known cognitive bias (the Dunning-Kruger effect). Post-instruction, we find that the ability of the original weakest quartile cohort to accurately predict their own assessment score has improved significantly, but a flux of students between quartiles from one assessment to the other reveals that the least able students continue to over-estimate their performance, but with a reduced mean discrepancy. We discuss the implications these results have for instruction and for development of enhanced metacognition amongst physics students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative thought and the ability to innovate are critical skills in industrial and academic careers alike. There exist attempts to foster creative skills in the business world, but little such work has been documented in a physics context. In particular, there are few tools available for those who want to assess the creativity of their physics students, making it difficult to tell whether instruction is having any effect. In this paper, we outline a new elective course at the Colorado School of Mines in the physics department designed to develop creativity and innovation in physics majors. We present our efforts to assess this course formatively, using tablet PCs and InkSurvey software, and summatively using the discipline-independent Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. We also describe early work towards developing a physics-specific instrument for measuring creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of learning through the STEM approach is highly dependent on the learning style of each high school student. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to obtain information on the relationship between learning styles and student Physics Subject Grades. The study used a quantitative approach and used method and design of correlation research. The number of respondents involved in this study were 30 students who were randomly selected from 120 students. Data collection using questionnaires and documentation. Questionnaires were used to obtain data on learning style variables, while documentation was used to obtain data on Physics Subject Grades variables. The data analysis technique uses the product moment correlation technique (inferential statistics) and descriptive statistics. The results of data analysis showed students with visual learning styles had the highest scores or Physics Subject Grades, while students with analytical learning styles had the lowest scores or Physics Subject Grades. Based on the results of data analysis, it was found that the impact of learning styles on the value of physics students was relatively low, but it was also found that among all learning styles, only Analytical and Holistic learning styles had a more dominant correlation with physics subject scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three sessions of the Physics Education Workshop focused on good education practice, with particular reference to gender awareness. The first session consisted of country-specific talks, from the United States, Tanzania and UK, with emphasis on engaging female students in physics, including strategies that work and strategies that do not work. Delegates discussed sharing best practices in their own countries and explored initiatives and pedagogy that may work in their own contexts. The second session demonstrated an example of practical physics teaching, with delegates observing teacher Dr. Jenny Watson delivering a workshop on friction to 30 local primary school girls. Following a brief introduction about the force of friction, the students built their own CD hovercraft using an old CD/DVD, a bottle cap and a balloon. Students were shown how to plan their own investigation into the factors that affect the amount of friction involved as their table-top hovercraft moved. Discussions on running experiments which engage girls and encourage them to fully participate followed the session. The final session focused on the notion that creativity is an integral aspect of physics: The last two talks described how art and beauty in physics can be used to engage girls who may otherwise not connect with physics. The workshop finished with discussions on best practices in gender-aware physics education that translates across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Working Group for Women in Physics in Taiwan was registered to the Physical Society of the Republic of China (PSROC) in December 1999 and was formally announced at the 2001 annual assembly of PSROC. In 2003 the group became a formal committee under PSROC. The current committee includes seven female and two male members. In the last 10 years, many milestones were achieved. In particular, the percentage of female physics faculties in universities and research institutes has increased to 12% from 8% within the last 10 years. In this paper we will present the results of our survey on the changes of the percentage of female physics faculties/students within the last 10 years and express our need to improve the working environment for female faculties in Taiwan in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific Inquiry is an introductory undergraduate course for preservice elementary teachers that aims to engage students in authentic scientific practices where these practices are not viewed as a mere course requirement but are understood as essential practices for constructing knowledge in the discipline. Many of these practices (e.g., representational practices, control-of-variables) evolve over the course of the semester as we work to answer complex questions. However, we hoped to have students- from the start of the term- keep detailed scientific notebooks. We describe an activity designed to foster practices related to the use of scientific notebooks, detail how we use images from scientists' notebooks, discuss the rubrics students create for their own notebooks, and share outcomes, including images of students' notebooks and students' reactions to the activity. Funding provided by NSF ♯0837058. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) play an important role in introductory physics courses, particularly in large enrollment courses where the TA may be viewed as more approachable and accessible than the lecture instructor. Thus, while TAs may still be in the process of developing their views on teaching physics, their practices directly influence a large number of introductory students. As the first steps in reforming our introductory courses and TA training program, we collected multiple types of data on TAs teaching in traditional algebra-based physics laboratories. Drawing on prior work on TAs' pedagogical knowledge, we explore how the beliefs expressed by TAs in interviews align with their practices during a laboratory video-taped mid-semester. Additionally, we explore how both the TAs' expressed beliefs and practices align with students' responses to an end-of-semester TA evaluation survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal education programs organized by university physics departments are a popular means of reaching out to communities and satisfying grant requirements. The outcomes of these programs are often described in terms of broader impacts on the community. Comparatively little attention, however, has been paid to the influence of such programs on those students facilitating the informal science programs. Through Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC) at the University of Colorado Boulder, undergraduate and graduate physics students coach elementary and middle school children during an inquiry-based science afterschool program. As part of their participation in PISEC, university students complete preparation in pedagogy, communication and diversity, engage with children on a weekly basis and provide regular feedback about the program. We present findings that indicate these experiences improve the ability of university students to communicate in everyday language and positively influence their perspectives on teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have focused on the resources that students activate and utilize while solving a given physics problem. However, few studies explore how students relate a given resource such as an equation, to various types of physics problems and contexts and how they ascertain the meaning and applicability of that resource. We explore how students view physics equations, derive meaning from those equations, and use those equations in physics problem solving. We adapt Dubinsky and McDonald's description of APOS (action-process-object-schema) theory of learning in mathematics, to construct a theoretical framework that describes how students interpret and use equations in physics in terms of actions, processes, objects, and schemas. This framework provides a lens for understanding how students construct their understanding of physics concepts and their relation to equations. We highlight how APOS theory can be operationalized to serve as a lens for studying the use of mathematics in physics problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student success in a physics degree has been shown to depend on more than just performance in course assessment: important additional factors include student attitudes and beliefs about their subject. We have used an instrument (CLASS) that measures how student epistemologies evolve over the course of their undergraduate degree. Our previous work has sampled a cross-section of students at all levels across the physics undergraduate programme at Edinburgh in a single academic year, and found that student attitudes and beliefs remain essentially static. Here, we present fully longitudinal data collected over the past three years, where we track the evolution of the attitudes and beliefs of one group of students. We find broadly similar results: attitudes and beliefs remain surprisingly consistent over time. This suggests that a 'cross-sectional' or 'pseudo-longitudinal' study (collecting snapshot data in one year) is a valid methodology, rather than necessarily having to wait several years to accumulate truly longitudinal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the Department of Physics was established together with the University of Zambia in 1966, it has only graduated eight females to date. This calls for concern since the University of Zambia is the only institution that offers a physics degree program in Zambia. In this paper, three of these females discuss their understanding of the factors that have led to members of their gender shunning physics. They outline the way they themselves came to do physics and they discuss the problems they faced as they studied physics and the rewards they received from this. They propose ways and means of motivating other females to take up physics and of making studies easier and more fulfilling for those who opt to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misconception is very much unwanted, because it prevents the scientific understanding of concepts. Every student who had been categorized as misconception (MC) is found to be very difficult to return to the correct understanding of concepts [1], except only by using a model of concept change. Considering the importance of understanding the accurate concepts, the purpose of this study is to prevent potential misconceptions (PMC) of Physics students through the application of the CoCoAER learning model using a scientific approach on learning material absorbing and penetrating radioactive elements. The subjects of this study are three classes of physics students' semester VI of FKIP UNSYIAH academic year 2020/2021, with total 75 people. Using qualitative research methods related to the validity of supporting models, and the practicality of the CoCoAER model, analysis of student activities was conducted by recording the data about number of activities frequency divided by the total number of overall activity frequencies multiplied by 100%, while the quantitative methods related to the effectiveness of the model was completed by searching N-Gain. The results of the analysis showed that the CoCoAER learning model could prevent potential misconceptions (PMC) of FKIP UNSYIAH physics students with medium and high N-Gain categories ranging between (0.5 – 0.9). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important goal of physics instruction is to facilitate the students to become an effective problem solver. However, researchers reveal that students' physics problem solving skills is quite low. In this respect, we have implemented modeling instruction to improve students problem solving skills in the topic of heat and temperature. The instruction has been piloted to 55 students of grade 12 of a high school in Batu, East Java. The students’ problem solving skills have been assessed using a rubric of problem solving developed by Docktor & Heller. By using mixed-methods, pretest-posttest analyses we found that the students’ problem solving skills increased with N-gain of 0.80. In addition, the students reasoning to solve the problems also improved from pretest to posttest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practicum of physics in college used as a means to develop the competence of prospective physics teachers. In general, each practicum equipped with a module, where one of the characteristics of the module is adaptive. Adaptive here means the module can adjust to the development of science and technology and is flexible to use. A technology that can be adapted to modules is Augmented Reality (AR). In addition to adaptive, this practicum module is expected to be able to improve students' collaborative problem-solving skills. This development research uses the stages of 4D, Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate, where from this development a wave practicum module and AR application are obtained. All products made validated by material, media, and learning experts. The product was tested by five groups, three students in a group. The students are physics preserve teacher from the same class. After conducting a field test, it can conclude that the practicum module with adaptive technology can help students to improve collaborative problem-solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Escape games recently became an alternative teaching tool. Three different short escape games are presented: one of general physics, one of mechanics and one of optics. The general physics escape game includes density and resistance measurements, and ultraviolet code decryption. Furthermore, the mechanics game has been concentrating on fluids, oscillations and standing waves. Finally, the optics game has been developed with special focus on diffraction, polarization, telescopes, and colour filters. All of them have been tested on the "school in a different way" week on several groups of 4-6 students from secondary school, grade 6 to 10. In the process of the creation and implementation of the games faculty students were involved too. This can create another bridge between secondary school physics teaching and prospective physics teachers’ education, for who this activity could be a good practical experience. From feedbacks we can conclude that both in-game recapitulation of the encountered new notions and also after-discussions are of great importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to illustrate aspects of a physics classroom experience in an underserved high school through the perspective of the students. This context was chosen with the intent of determining factors that lead to successful secondary physics education outcomes for populations historically underrepresented in STEM. Two class periods of physics were observed and interviewed in an urban high school while using the Physics and Everyday Thinking (PET) curriculum. Findings indicate that students came to value and positively identify with the activities of physics through instruction that fosters a more dignified student experience than traditional approaches. Specifically, this experience was characterized by the valuing of students' naïve and developing understandings and shifting the authority for validating science knowledge from the instructor to laboratory evidence and social consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presented is a subsection of a larger project to understand and facilitate students' use of mathematics when solving physics problems. Specifically, this study is an examination of how students group/pair problems in math and physics. The results show that whether students examine surface or structure is in part dependent on context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Calibration' is an aspect of metacognition that describes how well students assess their own knowledge. One tool that can help to assess student calibration is the knowledge survey (KS). On a KS, students rate their confidence in their ability to answer questions related to course content. A comparison of a student's confidence level with their actual performance on course exams gives an indication of the student's metacognitive calibration. We report on a study that explores students' responses to a KS in introductory physics and chemistry courses serving both STEM and non-STEM populations. In many courses, Delta (the difference between KS-score and final exam score, a measure of calibration) was anti-correlated with final exam performance. No relationship was found between Delta and students' scientific reasoning abilities. We also report preliminary findings on how calibration differs for questions of a quantitative nature vs. those of a more conceptual nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asking students about the acceleration of a tossed object is a well-studied problem in physics education research. Students frequently respond using reasoning that describes the velocity of the object, in particular that acceleration is zero at the top. We created new versions of the canonical multiple-choice Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation coin-toss questions to investigate what other reasoning students might use. Some students were asked 'is the acceleration zero at the top?' Other students were told 'the acceleration is not zero' and asked to explain. A third group answered the original multiple-choice version of the question. Our results suggest that some students give answers that they can explain are incorrect. We also find that some students' responses about the acceleration at the turnaround point are affected by question format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classroom interactions provide learning opportunities for understanding others and developing agency in a community of learners. Student learning identities were measured using a survey instrument targeting physics learning self-efficacy, expectations of classroom roles, and attitude toward social learning as components of physics learning identity. From a selection of students who scored relatively high or low on the survey sub scales, an academically successful student in an introductory physics course using an active engagement curriculum was selected to examine identity development. Findings indicate he didn't develop a sense of agency, nor did he feel a need to alter his participation, although there were ample opportunities to do so in the learning community. These results suggest that being a successful physics student in the traditional sense doesn't necessarily mean the student is successful at adopting meta-goals which are the non-content course goals of learning to think like a physicist. This student was prompted to engage meaningfully but didn't feel it was required for success which suggests that structural alignment is required to motivate students to achieve meta-goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe changes in a physics teacher's pedagogy and cultural awareness that resulted from her students' involvement in reforming their classroom. For this case study, we examined a veteran high school teacher's semester-long use of CMPLE (the Cogenerative Mediation Process for Learning Environments) in her Modeling Instruction classroom. CMPLE is a formative intervention designed to help students and instructors collaborate to change classroom dynamics, based on how closely the environment matches their learning preferences. Analysis of classroom videos, interviews, and other artifacts indicates that adapting the environment to align with the preferences of that shared culture affected the instructor in complex ways. We will trace her teaching practices and her self-described awareness of the culture of learning, to highlight notable changes. The teacher espoused deeper understanding of her students' physics learning experience, which she gained from including students in responding to their own individual and collective learning preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several reasons have been proposed to explain students' incorrect answers to conceptual physics problems. Heckler [3] proposed with a perceptual basis: plausible and salient "eye catching" features in a problem capture students' attention. Once students attend to these perceptually salient features, less salient albeit thematically relevant features are not considered and students answer the problem incorrectly based on the salient features. To test this hypothesis we recorded eye movements of introductory physics students on 15 conceptual problems with diagrams. Each diagram contained areas consistent with documented novice-like answers and other areas consistent with the scientifically correct answer. We manipulated the luminance contrast of the diagrams to produce three versions of each diagram, which differed by the area with the highest level of perceptual salience. We found no effect of the salience on the correctness of students' answers. We also discuss how the salience manipulations influence eye movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving curricular materials and practices aimed at complex cognitive processes such as problem solving requires careful planning and useful tools for assessment. To illustrate the challenges of measuring a change in students' problem solving in physics, we present the results of and a reflection on a pilot assessment of the effectiveness of computer problem-solving coaches [1] in a large (200+ student) section of an introductory physics course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a study with first year university physics students in which we investigated the effect on student responses when small contextual changes were made to the presentation of an 'open circuit'. The eight question instrument that we designed included representational, linguistic and circuit element variations. Our findings indicate that while the changes might appear trivial they significantly affect the way in which students respond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades education researchers have demonstrated that various types of knowledge, including pedagogical content knowledge, influence teachers' instructional practices and their students' learning opportunities. Findings suggest that by engaging in the work of teaching, teachers acquire knowledge of how students think, but the education research community has not yet captured this learning as it occurs. During an investigation of whether novice physics instructors can develop such knowledge via the activities of attending to student work, we captured instances of knowledge development and have identified several mechanisms that supported instructors in building this knowledge. We analyzed data from interviews with physics graduate teaching assistants as they examined and discussed students' written work. During those discussions, some instructors appeared to develop new knowledge-either about students' thinking or about the physics content-and others did not. We compare and contrast three cases representing a range of outcomes and identify factors that influenced the development of new knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermodynamics is a core part of curricula in physics and many engineering fields. Despite the apparent similarity in coverage, individual courses in each discipline have distinct emphases and applications. Physics education researchers have identified student difficulties with concepts such as heat, temperature, and entropy as well as with larger grain-sized ideas such as state variables, path-dependent processes, etc. Engineering education research has corroborated some of these findings and has identified additional difficulties unique to engineering contexts such as confusion between steady-state and equilibrium processes. We are beginning a project that provides an opportunity to expand the interdisciplinary research on conceptual understanding in thermodynamics. This project has two goals: first, determine the overlapping content and concepts across the disciplines; second, compare conceptual understanding between these groups using existing conceptual questions from PER and EER. We present a review of PER and EER literature in thermodynamics and highlight some concepts that we will investigate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When science undergraduates begin their upper-division coursework, their declaration of major becomes more concrete and meaningful as they have opportunities to interact more deeply with the community of their chosen discipline. In the process of completing a major, students transition their identity towards being a member of their field. In Wenger's community of practice framework, community membership is built on alignment of common goals, participation in social interactions, and perception of belonging in the community. But what does it mean to be a chemist or physicist from the students' perspective? In this study, we examine junior-level chemistry and physics majors' ideas about their science identity through semi-structured interviews and prompted reflective journals. We compare and contrast how chemistry and physics students negotiate their identity as members in their disciplinary field in terms of practice, qualifications, attitude, and in relation to other STEM communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physics Studio teaching was recently introduced at an international and multicultural academic program of a U.S. university in Panama. The results of introducing and implementing studio-style teaching on the conceptual understanding of calculus-based introductory physics have been measured by comparing before and during studio implementation. The research was carried on over the last five years in different semesters. The measurement tool was the Force Concept Inventory. The initial learning stage of the incoming diverse students has been found to be at a significantly lower level than generally reported in the U.S. The normalized gain in conceptual understanding was significantly larger than in the former traditional system, and has become consistent in the last semesters. Multicultural aspects that may affect the entry level and performance enhancement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physics students' views about what kinds of learning and knowledge-generating activities are expected in class, their epistemological framing, influences their reasoning and what they learn. [1,2] In previous work, we observed that students' likelihood of correctly answering a kinematics question easily solved through common sense depended on whether preceding questions on the survey were designed to prime 'sense-making' or schoolish 'answer-making'. [3] To get insight into students' reasoning we collected 24 think-alouds. [4] The think-aloud data indicate that some participants who incorrectly answered the question misinterpreted the physical situation it describes. On its face this observation might be seen as evidence that inferring answer-making from an incorrect answer lacks validity. However, analysis indicates that students misinterpret the question because of how they frame their approach to answering it. So, misinterpretation of the kinematics question is a signal of epistemological framing, not an impediment to seeing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]