Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2011
Volume 56, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 30–May 3 2011; Anaheim, California
Session X1: Enhancing Performance and Retention of Under-Represented Students in Undergraduate Physics |
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Sponsoring Units: CSWP COM Chair: Patricia Burchat, Stanford University Room: Grand A |
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 10:45AM - 11:21AM |
X1.00001: Building sustainable systems that support success of underrepresented students Invited Speaker: The number of physics majors at Florida International University has grown from 37 declared majors in 2003 to 127 in 2010. This growth provides us with an opportunity to investigate the components of FIU's educational system which have contributed to this growth and the overall success of our students at FIU. Understanding student success at FIU is important because FIU is a research intensive Hispanic Serving Institution which has a majority of students who have been historically underrepresented in physics including, minority students and women. Our primary efforts have focused on developing supportive learning environments through the implementation of Modeling Instruction in several sections of introductory physics and providing dedicated space for student collaboration outside of class. We provide data indicating that the Modeling courses support enhanced learning, attitudes, and retention and that the space is being utilized by students to integrate into the physics department. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 11:21AM - 11:57AM |
X1.00002: Developing an effective instructional environment by understanding what the urban student brings to the physics class Invited Speaker: Physics Education Research (PER) has provided the physics community with (1) tools to assess student learning, (2) details on the state of student knowledge, and (3) instructional materials and learning environments that have proven to be effective in promoting understanding. Often, implicit in the dissemination of this work is a claim that these assessment tools, education research results and instructional materials are valid and appropriate regardless of the student population. As instructors begin to implement and assess different types of innovative instructional materials with diverse populations we begin to find complex differences in how different students come to understand physics and develop knowledge. Instructional materials that address the needs of one group of students may not address the needs of other groups. In addition, assessment and evaluation techniques that provide valid results for one group of students may not yield valid or complete results when used with other groups. If one is not careful, the use of traditional PER tools with students in non-traditional learning environments can lead to a very limited or even inaccurate picture of student development. Often, this limited view highlights student deficiencies and fails to reveal the strengths and resources of this population. In this talk we discuss our work at Chicago State University, which has focused on the specific issues of the urban student at the comprehensive university and the two year college. The refinement of our research tools and research agenda have helped us identify a rich set of resources that our students bring to the classroom and continue to cultivate as the semester progresses. These resources have played a major role in how our instructional environment has evolved. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 11:57AM - 12:33PM |
X1.00003: Reducing gender differences in performance in introductory college physics through values affirmation Invited Speaker: Despite males and females being equally represented at the college level in several STEM disciplines (including biology, chemistry and mathematics), females continue to be under-represented in physics. Our research documents and addresses this participation gender gap in the introductory, calculus-based physics courses at the University of Colorado. We characterize gender differences in performance, psychological factors (including attitudes and beliefs) and retention that exist in Physics 1 and 2 [L. E. Kost, et al., Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010101 (2009); L. E. Kost-Smith, et al., Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, 020112 (2010)]. We find that the gender differences in performance can largely be accounted for by measurable differences in the physics and mathematics backgrounds and incoming attitudes and beliefs of males and females. But these background factors do not completely account for the gender gaps. We hypothesize, based on gender differences in responses to survey questions about students' sense of physics identity and confidence levels, that identity threat (the fear of confirming a negative characterization about one's identity) is playing a role in our courses. Working with researchers in psychology, we implemented an intervention where students either wrote about their most important values or not, twice at the beginning of the course [A. Miyake, et al., Science, 330, 1234 (2010)]. This ``values affirmation'' activity reduced the male-female performance difference substantially and elevated women's modal grades from the C to B range. Benefits were strongest for women who tended to endorse the stereotype that men do better than women in physics. This brief psychological intervention may be a promising way to address the gender gap in science performance. [Preview Abstract] |
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