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  • Open Access

Disciplinary significance of social caring in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

Lara Appleby1,2, Vesal Dini1, Lily Withington3, Ellise LaMotte4, and David Hammer1,2

  • 1Department of Physics & Astronomy, Tufts University, 574 Boston Avenue, Suite 304, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
  • 2Department of Education, Tufts University, 12 Upper Campus Road, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
  • 3Casco Bay High School, 196 Allen Avenue, Portland, Maine 04103, USA
  • 4Center for STEM Diversity, Tufts University, 20 Professors Row, 2nd Floor, Somerville, Massachusetts 02144, USA

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, 023106 – Published 22 September, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.023106

Abstract

We analyzed student engagement in physics during a summer course for incoming first-year students, part of a cohort-based learning community designed for students from underrepresented groups in the School of Engineering of a predominantly white institution. The data—video of an episode within the course and interviews of the 11 students one year later about their experiences in the program and the course—support two findings: (i) The students cared for each other, in a social sense, and felt cared for by the instructor, and (ii) the students framed the course as focused on their own reasoning. We argue that the former supported the latter, and we offer this as a conjecture for further study: Social caring can support productive epistemological framing. If this is correct, it would suggest the benefits of aligning what takes place within courses with the socially supportive dynamics of extracurricular cohort-based learning communities.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Corrections

8 October, 2021

Correction: The affiliation indicators for the second and third authors were incorrect and have been fixed.

Article Text

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, 023106– Published 22 September, 2021
  • Received 4 January 2021
  • Accepted 9 August 2021
  • Corrected 8 October 2021
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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