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Through reflective journaling, the Alma project at San Francisco State University (an HSI) seeks to affirm STEM students’ identities, support connections with their life experiences, and recognize their cultural wealth. Our department offers a number of introductory physics and astronomy lecture and lab sequences including: a three-semester calculus-based physics sequence targeted toward engineering, computer science and physical science majors; a two-semester algebra-based physics sequence targeted toward students in the biosciences; a one-semester conceptual physics course; and one-semester conceptual astronomy course. In response to the prompt “why am I here,” designed to draw out their values and purpose, students journaled for 5 - 10 minutes and then spent time in class sharing their responses. Using an iterative thematic coding approach, we analyzed more than 400 essays and identified 11 cultural capitals expressed by students. Here we compare and contrast the frequencies of cultural capitals exhibited by respondents in different course types.

AAPT SM 21

Cultural Capitals Expressed through Reflective Journaling in Introductory Physics Labs

reflective journaling

physics education research

**Making Physics More Inclusive and Eliminating Exclusionary Practices in Physics**

As a gateway discipline to STEM majors and careers, physics plays a central role in deciding who does, and who doesn't, get to discover and pursue scientific careers. Technical and scientific professionals are rewarded with economic privilege and status which affords them both social and cultural power. Therefore, social justice will be realized only when the opportunity, and the choice, to excel in physics is open to all students. The culture and practices of the physics classroom reflect the culture of physics at large, which raises the question of how our professional physics communities can embrace, rather than inadvertently repel, a diverse group of academics that can help improve physics culture.  To this end, the 2021 Physics Education Research Conference will focus on defining inclusive spaces and practices. Additionally, we will explore strategies for eliminating exclusionary practices in our classrooms, research spaces, and professional organizations. We call on the community to propose sessions that will drive conversations related to these initiatives throughout PERC 2021.

Please download the full program [here. ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRMC_SYJ3PUqXyP7sskA7LRSA8ow0eRE/view?usp=sharing)

PERC SM 21

August 4, 2021 - August 5, 2021 in a Virtual Conference Format

Making Physics More Inclusive and Eliminating Exclusionary Practices in Physics

technical paper

Join AAPT and Physics Educators worldwide in developing and strengthening your professional connections by attending the 2021 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting. AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques.

Listen to internationally known plenary speakers, attend sessions, workshops, and special activities. Attending the virtual summer meeting is an excellent opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.

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As DBER gains in stature, results of DBER studies are being used to make decisions. While we should celebrate the move toward evidence-based decision-making, high quality decisions require high quality data. Creating an instrument that will lead to valid and reliable inferences is a difficult task that is typically attempted only if no existing instrument is suitable; however, researchers who want to avoid the challenges of instrument creation still need a basis for making decisions regarding the quality of existing instruments. Using a framework to examine available psychometric evidence during the instrument selection process can help researchers to determine whether an instrument is likely to yield score interpretations that will support sound decisions.

Due respect: Using existing standards for instrument development

Anecdotally, it seems that many physics students are surprised when they first encounter computation in a physics curriculum, leading us to wonder how students perceive computation as a physics activity. Do they see computation as a helpful practice that is normative within the physics research community, or do they see it as a niche activity? Do they confidently look for opportunities to use computation in their coursework and research, or do they prefer to avoid engaging with computation? To what degree do they expect to use computation in their careers? We investigated these questions by interviewing 5 undergraduate physics majors in the semester after they encountered significant computational work in a set of upper-level physics courses. For most of these students, these courses presented their first encounter with computation in a physics context. These interviews revealed overall positive perceptions of computation and appreciation for a variety of computational applications.

Student Perceptions of Computation after Upper-Level Coursework

Research-validated clicker questions as instructional tools for formative assessment are relatively easy to implement and can provide effective scaffolding when developed and implemented in a sequence. We present findings from the implementation of a research-validated Clicker Question Sequence (CQS) on student understanding of the time-development of two-state quantum systems. This study was conducted in an advanced undergraduate quantum mechanics course. The effectiveness of the CQS was determined by evaluating students’ performance after traditional lecture-based instruction and comparing it to their performance after engaging with the CQS.

Using clicker question sequence to teach time-development in quantum mechanics

We present the initial validation of an assessment of calculus proficiency in the context of introductory physics (i.e., calculus transfer to physics), including how calculus proficiency and mathematics self-efficacy affect physics self-efficacy, and how these attributes intersect with student identity (e.g., gender). Although preliminary, these results nevertheless indicate how using separate instruments for assessing physics self-efficacy and calculus transfer in tandem can support data-guided curriculum modifications to improve calculus transfer to physics, improve physics self-efficacy, or both simultaneously. Due to the prevalence of physics courses in many STEM degree programs, such instructional changes have the potential to improve student performance and retention in many disciplines, including among groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM.

The interdependence of Physics Self-efficacy and Calculus Transfer Ability

In recent years, computation has emerged as a key instructional tool in physics alongside experiment and analytical problem-solving. In this evolving pedagogical practice, the ways in which instructors influence their students’ perceptions of computation is not well understood. Based in a communities of practice framework, this study aims to identify connections between students’ perceptions of computation in physics and their instructors’ perceptions. We interviewed physics majors and their instructors after they completed a set of computation-infused physics courses about their uses of computation in physics. The results will examine the degree to which these students’ perceptions of computation were influenced by their instructors. From these themes, we draw recommendations to enhance the integration of computation into undergraduate physics courses.

Instructors’ Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Computation

We report on the impact of an instructional intervention incorporating computational activities into a one semester general astronomy course. Computation is an effective active learning tool for developing understanding of concepts, connecting concepts with formulae, and associating science with prediction. Spreadsheet-based computational exercises were included in the course and completed collaboratively, along with other active learning activities. The results of inclusion of the computational exercises are presented, along with examples of the computational exercises. The reasons for introducing computational activities will be discussed, along with benefits supporting the inclusion and difficulties faced when implementing the change. Student learning pre to post was measured with the TOAST and LPCI, and qualitative data was collected in the form of student surveys to investigate student learning, attitudes toward computational exercises, and overall perceptions of the course. Student surveys revealed an overall positive attitude toward the addition of computational activities.

Incorporating computational activities in a general education astronomy course

Collaborative learning is increasingly common in physics education. At Western Washington University and Chico State, we are examining student management of confusion during small group activities, with a focus on the relationship between emotions and student engagement in tasks explicitly designed to trigger confusion. A primary context for our research is the Next Generation Physical Science and Everyday Thinking curriculum. We will use four types of data: written reflections, classroom videos, interviews, and experience sampling method (ESM) surveys. ESM is an in-the-moment survey that asks participants to report their affective experiences. We will use ESM to probe student frustration and engagement and to guide the collection of more in-depth data. We seek to describe ways in which students negotiate episodes of confusion to develop shared understanding. This talk will provide an overview of the ongoing project and will discuss how we have adapted the project in response to COVID.

The Social Negotiation of Confusion for Physics Learning

Disability is an important aspect of diversity but there are barriers to access and participation for disabled students inherent in the design of physics courses. To help counteract these barriers, universities are required to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled students. However, not all students use accommodations because of social factors (e.g., disability stigma) and others do not have access to professional diagnosis. With the decision to switch to emergency remote teaching (ERT, some educators believe that courses are inherently more accessible. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of students who identify with a disability/impairment who were taking a physics course in Fall 2020 to inform policies about providing access to students in future remote and face-to-face courses. In this talk we will present ethical considerations of conducting research during ERT as well as findings related to students use of accommodations and perceived effectiveness in physics courses.

Students’ Use of Disability Accommodations in Emergency Remote Teaching

The Alma project was developed at San Francisco State with the purpose of promoting inclusion and affirming students’ identities by encouraging self-reflection through journaling. After the Alma Project was successfully piloted in 2018 in Supplemental Instruction (SI) classes, it further expanded into all SI classes as well as introductory physics and astronomy labs. In Spring 2020, reflective journaling was used as an asset-based tool to center student voices in physics classrooms and to recognize students’ experiences transitioning to online learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. In addition, a question was added to lab experience surveys to understand students' experiences with remote learning during COVID-19. Essays (N = 233) and surveys (N = 1031) were analyzed using an iterative thematic coding approach. Based on these surveys and essays, we identify themes of positive and negative impact of online teaching and learning as well as strategies students described for self-care.


Reflective Journaling in the Era of COVID

We investigate the evolution and associations between exam grades and Social Comparison Concern (SCC) among students in an introductory calculus-based physics course. SCC is a scale measuring the concern over one’s own ability or performance relative to others and has previously been found to be moderately correlated with grades. We hypothesize a mutual influence between grades and SCC. Using a structural equation model, we find evidence that exam scores partially mediate changes in SCC scores, and in turn, SCC scores partially mediate changes in exam scores, though the mediation effects are somewhat small, around 10% of the total effects between grades and SCC. We also find that while SCC scores are correlated with exam scores, they are only very weakly correlated with non-exam grade components. Overall, the results provide evidence for a dynamic feedback loop in which SCC may either negatively or positively interfere with student performance on exams.

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