Seeking instructional specificity: An example from analogical instruction

We analyze institutional data from large introductory calculus-based physics courses at a large public research university in the US in which the students enrolled in these courses majored in engineering, chemistry, physics, computer science, and mathematics. The data were analyzed from two introductory physics courses that are required for most of these students and they are often considered ‘weed out’ courses in that a poor performance in these courses can severely hinder or modify students long term career goal achievement. In particular, these courses can act as gatekeepers for many students and those who do not perform to their satisfaction the first time often repeat these courses, particularly if they aspire to remain in their major. We present findings by analyzing data from different demographic groups based upon gender, ethnicity and race for how likely were the students from different demographic groups to repeat these introductory calculus-based physics courses and we compared outcomes of students who repeated with those who did not. We also analysed and found similar patterns in the calculus courses that are co-requisites for the physics courses. These findings can help physics departments contemplate strategies for providing personalized support to help all students succeed in these calculus-based physics courses so that students do not have to repeat these courses, which are pivotal for accomplishing their long-term career goals.

Analysis of institutional data for physics majors showing predictive relationships between required mathematics and physics courses in various years is important for contemplating how the courses build on each other and whether there is need to make changes to the curriculum for the majors to strengthen these relationships. We use 15 years of institutional data at a large research university to investigate how introductory physics and mathematics courses predict male and female physics majors' performance on required advanced physics and mathematics courses. We used Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate these predictive relationships and find that among introductory and advanced physics and mathematics courses, there are gender differences in performance in favor of male students only in the introductory physics courses after controlling for high school GPA. We found that a measurement invariance fully holds in a multi-group SEM by gender, so it was possible to carry out analysis with gender mediated by introductory physics and high school GPA. Moreover, we find that these introductory physics courses that have gender differences do not predict performance in advanced physics courses. Also, introductory mathematics courses predict performance in advanced mathematics courses which in turn predict performance in advanced physics courses. Furthermore, apart from the introductory physics courses that do not predict performance in future physics courses, there is a strong predictive relationship between the sophomore, junior and senior level physics courses.

Introductory physics is a gateway course that is required for many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. In introductory physics courses, women and racially minoritized students often have lower grades and higher attrition than white men. Inclusive teaching is widely recommended to ensure that all students have the opportunity to fully participate and succeed in the learning process. Thus, inclusive teaching practices may help increase the diversity of people in STEM majors and careers. However, these recommended inclusive teaching practices are not widely used in introductory physics courses. This study seeks to better understand the extent to which introductory college-level physics instructors use inclusive teaching strategies as well as their reasons for the use or nonuse of such practices. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 male instructors from a variety of higher education institutions in Michigan who taught introductory calculus-based physics courses in Spring 2022. The participants were asked to describe their use of and beliefs about 23 specific inclusive teaching strategies. Results show that few of these instructors are aware of the full range of inclusive teaching strategies. Most instructors are aware of inclusive teaching strategies that are related to active learning and frequently articulate valid reasons for implementing these strategies. However, when implementing inclusive teaching strategies, they often do not do so in ways that are known to be most effective. Instructors are less aware of and less willing to use inclusive teaching practices that require acknowledging differences in students’ identities. Their reasoning is that physics is an objective science that has nothing to do with race, gender, or other aspects of identity. Overall, this preliminary study suggests that significant work is needed to help introductory physics instructors understand, value, and implement the full range of inclusive teaching strategies.

Analysis of institutional data for physics majors showing predictive relationships between required mathematics and physics courses in various years is important for contemplating how the courses build on each other and whether there is need to make changes to the curriculum for the majors to strengthen these relationships. We used 15 years of institutional data at a US-based large research university to investigate how introductory physics and mathematics courses predict male and female physics majors’ performance on required advanced physics and mathematics courses. We used structure equation modeling (SEM) to investigate these predictive relationships and find that among introductory and advanced physics and mathematics courses, there are gender differences in performance in favor of male students only in the introductory physics courses after controlling for high school GPA. We found that a measurement invariance fully holds in a multi-group SEM by gender, so it was possible to carry out analysis with gender mediated by introductory physics and high school GPA. Moreover, we find that these introductory physics courses that have gender differences do not predict performance in advanced physics courses. In other words, students could be using invalid data about their introductory physics performance to make their decision about whether physics is the right field for them to pursue, and those invalid data in introductory physics favor male students. Also, introductory mathematics courses predict performance in advanced mathematics courses which in turn predict performance in advanced physics courses. Furthermore, apart from the introductory physics courses that do not predict performance in future physics courses, there is a strong predictive relationship between the sophomore, junior and senior level physics courses.

Computing has become essential in virtually all physical fields, used for tasks such as modelling complex systems and analyzing data. As a result, computer programming competence is now considered a default requirement for physics research. Additionally, computer programming requires critical thinking and problem solving skills – both of which are also essential for physics and other rigorous disciplines. Thus, learning to program at the undergraduate level not only facilitates students’ ability to apply physical principles to solving problems, but also boosts marketable skills valuable in a more general job market. However, little emphasis is placed on computer literacy in the introductory courses of undergraduate physics curricula. Physics students interested in pursuing undergraduate research will often need to either take a computer science course or learn a computer programming language independently. In either case, it takes the student a long time to gain an understanding of the language and be able to apply it to relevant problems. This workshop is geared toward instructors and teaching assistants in introductory undergraduate physics courses with a working understanding of and experience using at least one programming language (e.g., Python, MATLAB, C++) for scientific applications. The intention is to introduce methods and provide suggestions for more effectively introducing students to scientific programming and integrating it into the physics curriculum.

The World Wide Web influences education and our lives in many ways. Nowadays, Web-based homework has been becoming widespread practice in physics courses and some other courses as well. Although are some disputes whether this is an encouraging or risky development for student learning, there is limited research assessing the pedagogical effect of changing the medium from written, handgraded homework to online oriented, computer-graded homework. In this study, web-oriented homework system is developed to assess students’ introductory physics course performance. Later on, these results are compared with paper-based (peer) homework performance for mid enrollment physics courses. One of two identical sections of introductory physics course students received paper-based, hand graded group homework while the other received the individual web-based homework. Then two groups’ on conceptual and problem-solving performance measures are compared. No significant differences were found in students’ Force Concept Inventory (FCI) test scores; however, average homework performance scores were significant that could be attributed to the homework method used in favor of paperbased peer homework group.

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) the characteristics of instruction and learning tools, (2) student characteristics, (3) implementation of instruction and learning tools, and (4) the 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 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. We found that female students reported lower levels of self-efficacy, fascination, and value associated with physics, and held a more “fixed” view of intelligence in the context of physics compared to male students. Female students’ fascination and value associated with physics decreased significantly more than males’ after an introductory physics course sequence. In addition, females’ view of physics intelligence became more “fixed” compared to males’ by the end of an introductory physics course sequence. Grit was the only factor on which females reported averages that were equal to or higher than males throughout introductory physics courses. The findings inform the framework and have implications for the development and implementation of effective pedagogies and learning tools to help all students learn.

An appropriate diagram is a required element of a solution building process in physics problem solving and it can transform a given problem into a representation that is easier to exploit for solving the problem. A major focus while helping introductory physics students learn problem solving is to help them appreciate that drawing diagrams facilitates problem solving. We conducted an investigation in which two different interventions were implemented during recitation quizzes throughout the semester in a large enrolment, algebra-based introductory physics course. Students were either (1) asked to solve problems in which the diagrams were drawn for them or (2) explicitly told to draw a diagram. A comparison group was not given any instruction regarding diagrams. We developed a rubric to score the problem solving performance of students in different intervention groups. We investigated two problems involving electric field and electric force and found that students who drew productive diagrams were more successful problem solvers and that a higher level of relevant detail in a student’s diagram corresponded to a better score. We also conducted think-aloud interviews with nine students who were at the time taking an equivalent introductory algebra-based physics course in order to gain insight into how drawing diagrams affects the problem solving process. These interviews supported some of the interpretations of the quantitative results. We end by discussing instructional implications of the findings.

When considering performing an Introductory Physics for Life Sciences course transformation for one's own institution, life science majors' achievement goals are a necessary consideration to ensure the pedagogical transformation will be effective. However, achievement goals are rarely an explicit consideration in physics education research topics such as metacognition. We investigate a sample population of 218 students in a first-semester introductory algebra-based physics course, drawn from 14 laboratory sections within six semesters of course sections, to determine the influence of achievement goals on life science majors' attitudes towards physics. Learning orientations that, respectively, pertain to mastery goals and performance goals, in addition to a learning orientation that does not report a performance goal, were recorded from students in the specific context of learning a problem-solving framework during an in-class exercise. Students' learning orientations, defined within the context of students' self-reported statements in the specific context of a problem-solving-related research-based course implementation, are compared to pre-post results on physics problem-solving items in a well-established attitudinal survey instrument, in order to establish the categories' validity. In addition, mastery-related and performance-related orientations appear to extend to overall pre-post attitudinal shifts, but not to force and motion concepts or to overall course grade, within the scope of an introductory physics course. There also appears to be differentiation regarding overall course performance within health science majors, but not within biology majors, in terms of learning orientations; however, health science majors generally appear to fare less well on all measurements in the study than do biology majors, regardless of learning orientations.

We report the results of an investigation into physics students’ understanding of vector addition, magnitude, and direction for problems presented in graphical form. A seven-item quiz, including free-response problems, was administered in all introductory general physics courses during the 2000/2001 academic year at Iowa State. Responses were obtained from 2031 students during the first week of class. We found that more than one quarter of students beginning their second semester of study in the calculus-based physics course, and more than half of those beginning the second semester of the algebra-based sequence, were unable to carry out two-dimensional vector addition. Although the total scores on the seven-item quiz were somewhat better for students in their second semester of physics in comparison to students in their first semester, many students retained significant conceptual difficulties regarding vector methods that are heavily employed throughout the physics curriculum.

Student sense of belonging in physics classes may not only play a key role in shaping course outcomes but also influence student persistence and future career aspirations. Prior research has shown that women have a lower sense of belonging than men in calculus-based introductory physics courses. However, prior research has generally not investigated students’ sense of belonging in introductory physics courses in which women are not underrepresented. We administered a validated survey to investigate the sense of belonging of 814 students and how it predicts student grades in a mandatory introductory physics course primarily for bioscience majors. In particular, we investigated how students’ sense of belonging predicts female and male students’ grade at the end of the mandatory physics course for bioscience majors using structural equation modeling. We found that women had a lower sense of belonging and grade than men in this course and that the students’ sense of belonging played a major role in predicting students’ grade in the course. In addition, while men’s sense of belonging significantly increased from the beginning to the end of the physics course, women’s sense of belonging did not significantly change by the end of the course.

A survey of pre/post-test data using the Halloun–Hestenes Mechanics Diagnostic test or more recent Force Concept Inventory is reported for 62 introductory physics courses enrolling a total number of students N=6542. A consistent analysis over diverse student populations in high schools, colleges, and universities is obtained if a rough measure of the average effectiveness of a course in promoting conceptual understanding is taken to be the average normalized gain 〈g〉. The latter is defined as the ratio of the actual average gain (%〈post〉−%〈pre〉) to the maximum possible average gain (100−%〈pre〉). Fourteen “traditional” (T) courses (N=2084) which made little or no use of interactive-engagement (IE) methods achieved an average gain 〈g〉T-ave=0.23±0.04 (std dev). In sharp contrast, 48 courses (N=4458) which made substantial use of IE methods achieved an average gain 〈g〉IE-ave=0.48±0.14 (std dev), almost two standard deviations of 〈g〉IE-ave above that of the traditional courses. Results for 30 (N=3259) of the above 62 courses on the problem-solving Mechanics Baseline test of Hestenes–Wells imply that IE strategies enhance problem-solving ability. The conceptual and problem-solving test results strongly suggest that the classroom use of IE methods can increase mechanics-course effectiveness well beyond that obtained in traditional practice.

In the introductory physics course, conducting experiments and learning topics that seem abstract using a PhET virtual laboratory is necessary. With several previous research results showing that PhET has benefits in learning activities, this study aims to find out Physics Education students related to the usefulness of the PhET virtual laboratory in the introductory alpha decay Nuclear physics course. This research is a quantitative descriptive technique with the research variable of the Colorado PhET virtual laboratory in the Introduction to Nuclear Physics course on alpha decay material. The data collection technique is through a questionnaire method using a Likert scale of five answer choices marked by giving a negative to positive score. The population of the survey is all students of physical education, which is 79 people. However, only 71 people filled out the questionnaire. Characteristics of students who are 21 years old on average with computer/laptop skills on average 81%, interest in introductory physics courses as much as 77%, interest in practicum as much as 86%, and interest in learning topics as much as 61% it can be said that the laboratory virtual PhET is helpful in the learning process of the introductory alpha decay Nuclear physics course with a proportion of 86% of PhET virtual laboratories can help the learning process, 81% of PhET virtual laboratories are the preferred learning method, 80% of PhET virtual laboratories are engaging learning, 81% virtual laboratories PhET can be done independently, and 79.99% use of the virtual laboratory application is easy to use.

We present a series of standard demonstrations as examples of activities that can be used to introduce multiple concepts and tie different sections of the introductory physics course together. These demonstrations can serve as the context through which concepts for a section of the course can be discussed. The demonstrations are simple enough that student volunteers from the class can do them. Students are asked to predict the outcome of parts of the demonstration and participate in discussion of the demonstration as it is being presented. This interactive approach helps to promote active engagement. The first semester introductory physics course is divided into 6 sections and a demonstration is presented which is used to introduce most of the new concepts of that section. Understanding of the demonstration is used as a goal in studying the chapters during that section of the course. At the end of the section the demonstration is repeated to review the concepts learned and then to introduce some of the concepts of the new section. A new demonstration is then used to further introduce the concepts of the new section. This activity is repeated for each new section of the course. This work is part of an NSF sponsored program where we sought to change the classroom environment for women and minorities and to attempt to more actively engage all students. Through these as well as other classroom changes we attempt to raise students' confidence levels and improve attitudes about science through increased engagement. Our overall approach is to change the structure of the course by introducing a few activities at a time and not disrupt the lecture format significantly. Our project was evaluated by in-class observation of student interaction and the results were compared to observations in conventionally taught introductory physics courses. Our demonstration approach contributes to changes in classroom dynamics by stimulating student engagement and encouraging inclusivity.

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.