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Evidence is presented that offering introductory physics courses with an explicit focus on mastery can reduce the gender gap to zero. Taken together with a previous study showing that a concepts-first course may zero out another demographic gap leads one to speculate that demographic grade gaps in introductory physics are just artifacts of the design of the courses and that none of these classes/grades should be assumed to be demographically neutral.
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We present an investigation into the interdisciplinary role of physics in a physics-for-non-physicists 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 non-physics disciplines to explore the function of this course and the role of physics in the education of non-physics-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 non-physics professors expressing value through relevance to their discipline and physics professors focusing on essential aspects of physics.
Students face diverse pathways as they journey through undergraduate study. The analysis of student course records can untangle common patterns in course progression, and identify group trends in student outcomes. The current work examines the relationship between gender and undergraduate physics study, using course records from over nine thousand students who enrolled in physics at the University of Auckland, spanning a six year period. Physics students demographic and course records were analyzed to find out whether there were gender differences in subject selection, course performance, and confidence. Subsequent to taking a first year physics course, female students were more likely to take further courses in life science subjects, while male students were more likely to take physical science subjects. In first year courses, gender differences were not present among highly academically prepared students, for whom school type (single-sex or coeducational) was a better predictor of course outcome. However, of those students who were less academically prepared in their first year, male students tended to outperform female students. Female students were also more likely to take an introductory physics course before an advancing course, compared to male students, after controlling for academic preparation. Science capital, a concept related to Pierre Bourdieus notions of capital and habitus, was employed as an interpretive research framework. Habitus, the system of dispositions one uses to interpret the world, is largely influenced by the socio-cultural context in which an individual builds their identity. The following study explains how an interaction between science capital and an individuals habitus may lead to gender disparities in student outcomes in the field of physics.
It is a well-studied notion that women are under-represented in the physical sciences, with a leaky pipeline metaphor describing how the number of women decreases at higher levels in academia[1,2]. It is unclear, however, where the major leaks exist and what factors are responsible for this[2]. Our focus here is on women in physics with an emphasis on practical laboratory work.
A large body of research shows that using interactive engagement pedagogy in the introductory physics classroom consistently results in significant student learning gains; however, with a few exceptions, those learning gains tend not to be accompanied by more expertlike attitudes and beliefs about physics and learning physics. In fact, in both traditionally taught and active learning classroom environments, students often become more novicelike in their attitudes and beliefs following a semester of instruction. Further, prior to instruction, men typically score higher than women on conceptual inventories, such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), and more expertlike on attitudinal surveys, such as the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS), and those gender gaps generally persist following instruction. In this paper, we analyze three years of pre-post matched data for physics majors at Virginia Tech on the FCI and the CLASS. The courses were taught using a blended pedagogical model of peer instruction, group problem solving, and direct instruction, along with an explicit focus on the importance of conceptual understanding and a growth mindset. We found that the FCI gender gap decreased, and both men and women showed positive, expertlike shifts on the CLASS. Perhaps most surprisingly, we found a meaningful correlation between a students post- CLASS score and normalized FCI gain for women, but not for men.
The lack of diversity and the under-performance of underrepresented students in STEM courses have been the focus of researchers in the last decade. In particular, many hypotheses have been put forth for the reasons for the under-representation and under-performance of women in physics. Here, we present a framework for helping all students learn in science courses that takes into account four factors: 1) characteristics of instruction and learning tools, 2) implementation of instruction and learning tools, 3) student characteristics, and 4) students environments. While there has been much research on factor 1 (characteristics of instruction and learning tools), there has been less focus on factor 2 (students characteristics, and in particular, motivational factors). Here, we focus on the baseline motivational characteristics of introductory physics students obtained from survey data to inform factor 2 of the framework. A longitudinal analysis of students motivational characteristics in two-semester introductory physics courses was performed by administering pre- and post-surveys that evaluated students self-efficacy, grit, fascination with physics, value associated with physics, intelligence mindset, and physics epistemology. Female students reported lower self-efficacy, fascination and value, and had a more fixed view of intelligence in the context of physics compared to male students. Grit was the only factor on which female students reported averages that were equal to or higher than male students throughout introductory physics courses. These gender differences can at least partly be attributed to the societal stereotypes and biases about who belongs in physics and can excel in it. The findings inform the framework and have implications for the development and implementation of effective pedagogies and learning tools to help all students learn.
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