Diversity and inclusion in the field of physics has been an important area of research in the last two decades. However, such work has scarcely looked at the concerns and barriers faced by $\mathrm{LGBT}+$ physicists, despite numerous indications they face discrimination in wider society. This article presents the first study looking at the climate experiences and persistence of LGBT physicists through an online survey ($N=324$) focused on intragroup differences within the $\mathrm{LGBT}+$ community. The results indicated that 36% of all respondents reported considering leaving their institution or workplace with 22% reporting that they experienced exclusionary behavior in the last year (i.e., being shunned, ignored, or harassed). However, this number varied by gender with transgender participants (49%) experiencing the most exclusionary behavior. Overall, respondents who could be out about being $\mathrm{LGBT}+$ were more comfortable at their institutions and workplaces. The results point to the increasing challenges of $\mathrm{LGBT}+$ physicists who are also transgender or persons of color, indicating the need for further research on this topic.

The typical introductory physics lecture requires students to consolidate and assimilate a large quantity of complex information that is often novel to them. This can leave students overwhelmed, slow the pace of their learning, and lower their motivation. We find that carefully designed multimedia summaries in the form of one-minute videos and short text summaries can significantly increase students’ understanding of the material as well as their ability to organize information into a useful mental framework, as measured by their performances on a concept mapping exercise and a conceptual test of learning. Notably, we show that these improvements can be achieved with negligible increase in overall time students spend on the course material each week. We discuss reasons why these short postlecture summaries helped students learn more, namely, that (i) they likely increased students’ ability to chunk and organize information while minimizing the extraneous cognitive load imposed by the materials, and (ii) they likely improved students’ ability to consolidate and transfer knowledge through the use of contrasting cases. We provide a set of detailed recommendations that instructors can use to develop effective postlecture multimedia summaries. We suggest that one of the most important and impactful recommendations is incorporating student thinking in the design of these types of summaries informed by the input of qualified former students or teaching assistants with significant experience interacting with students in the course.

The structure of many science programs at the college level assumes that students are able to draw on and integrate ideas from multiple disciplinary contexts. However, most assessment tools focus on learning in the context of a single discipline. We describe the development and validation of an instrument to measure how well students are able to combine energy ideas from different disciplines into a coherent understanding of a phenomenon. The final version of the instrument consists of a pair of multiple-choice online assessments, along with a metric calculated from the assessment scores: the cross disciplinary learning index (CDLI). The items on both assessments were found to have satisfactory psychometric properties for our sample. Furthermore, CDLI scores correlated with other relevant factors such as amount of science coursework. The CDLI is an easy-to-use metric that could be a useful component of program-level assessment for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors. Furthermore, the broader measurement approach, involving a pair of assessments set in different disciplinary contexts, provides a model for assessing cross-disciplinary learning that could be utilized for other cross-cutting scientific concepts.

Physics education research is replete with observations and proposed explanations for gender disparities in physics. In this work, we operationalize a definition for equity as everyone has access to the learning environment and everyone’s voice is heard (adapted from previous definitions). We review prior research that observed inequities in physics lab group work and evaluate the degree to which these inequities may arise from student preferences. Regarding access to the learning environment, we find that men and women have similar preferences for experimentation roles, though women generally preferred sharing, rather than dividing or rotating, roles. Regarding everyone’s voice being heard, we find that students prefer when no single student takes charge, though many preferred that students take turns leading the group, with no significant differences between men’s and women’s preferences. We also find no significant differences in men’s and women’s preferences for the gender composition of their group. We conclude that the observed inequities are not explained by student preference and explore implications for instruction and future research.

In the summer of 2020, due to COVID-19, institutions either canceled or remotely hosted their research experience for undergraduates (REU) programs. We carried out a 16-week longitudinal study examining the impact of these fully remote research experiences on mentees’ psychosocial gains (e.g., identity). We studied the phenomenon of a remote research experience from the standpoint of the mentees ($N=10$) and their mentors ($N=8$), who were each interviewed seven and three times, respectively (94 total interviews). All mentees reported that this experience was highly beneficial through different factors such as other recognition and self-recognition, which led to their development of a sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and identity despite working remotely. Then, we synthesize these results with prior literature and develop a framework showing how different experiences and constructs affect the physics and researcher identity development. Gaining a greater understanding regarding factors leading to the growth of psychosocial gains may help REU coordinators and REU mentors to redesign their undergraduate research program and provide the support that their mentees’ need to have a positive undergraduate research experience.

Students at upper secondary and college level in many countries are introduced to quantum physics (QP) in a mostly mathless course. Research shows that addressing epistemological and philosophical aspects would be beneficial for novice students’ conceptual understanding. However, physics teachers seldom address these nature of science (NOS) aspects in their lessons. We take the view that teachers only implement these aspects if this serves their goals. This study explores whether experienced Dutch high school teachers, who are not trained for NOS teaching, address NOS in their QP lessons when provided with NOS-infused teaching resources. We based our framework on literature about pedagogic content knowledge and on the principles of the practicality of educational innovations. Teacher interviews ($N=10$) supported by classroom observations provided insights into how and why teachers use specific elements from the resources. Our research reveals teachers’ perspectives on teaching QP in secondary schools and why they think NOS aspects can be helpful to reach their teaching goals. Our findings support the view that conceptual QP is valuable for all students because an informed NOS view is vital for everybody in today’s society. Additionally, we expect that an ecological intervention that supports teachers and at the same time recognizes their professionality and environment has potential implications for other fields of science education and could have a significant positive impact in classrooms.

One desired outcome of introductory physics instruction is that students will develop facility with reasoning quantitatively about physical phenomena. Little research has been done regarding how students develop the algebraic concepts and skills involved in reasoning productively about physics quantities, which is different from either understanding of physics concepts or problem-solving abilities. We introduce the Physics Inventory of Quantitative Literacy (PIQL) as a tool for measuring Quantitative Literacy, a foundation of mathematical reasoning, in the context of introductory physics. We present the development of the PIQL and evidence of its validity for use in calculus-based introductory physics courses. Unlike concept inventories, the PIQL is a reasoning inventory, and can be used to assess reasoning over the span of students’ instruction in introductory physics. Although mathematical reasoning associated with the PIQL is taught in prior mathematics courses, pretest and post-test scores reveal that this reasoning is not readily used by most students in physics, nor does it develop as part of physics instruction—even in courses that use high-quality, research-based curricular materials. As has been the case with many inventories in physics education, we expect use of the PIQL to support the development of instructional strategies and materials—in this case, designed to meet the course objective that all students become quantitatively literate in introductory physics.

An analysis of 1955 physics graduate students from 19 Ph.D. programs shows that undergraduate grade point average predicts graduate grades and Ph.D. completion more effectively than GRE scores. Students’ undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and GRE Physics (GRE-P) scores are small but statistically significant predictors of graduate course grades, while GRE quantitative and GRE verbal scores are not. We also find that males and females score equally well in their graduate coursework despite a statistically significant 18 percentile point gap in median GRE-P scores between genders. A counterfactual mediation analysis demonstrates that among admission metrics tested only UGPA is a significant predictor of overall Ph.D. completion, and that UGPA predicts Ph.D. completion indirectly through graduate grades. Thus UGPA measures traits linked to graduate course grades, which in turn predict graduate completion. Although GRE-P scores are not significantly associated with Ph.D. completion, our results suggest that any predictive effect they may have is also linked indirectly through graduate GPA. Overall our results indicate that among commonly used quantitative admissions metrics, UGPA offers the most insight into two important measures of graduate school success, while posing fewer concerns for equitable admissions practices.

Across the field of education research there has been an increased focus on the development, critique, and evaluation of statistical methods and data usage due to recently created, very large datasets and machine learning techniques. In physics education research (PER), this increased focus has recently been shown through the 2019 Physical Review PER Focused Collection examining quantitative methods in PER. Quantitative PER has provided strong arguments for reforming courses by including interactive engagement, demonstrated that students often move away from scientistlike views due to science education, and has injected robust assessment into the physics classroom via concept inventories. The work presented here examines the impact that machine learning may have on physics education research, presents a framework for the entire process including data management, model evaluation, and results communication, and demonstrates the utility of this framework through the analysis of two types of survey data.

One argument for keeping the physics Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is that it can help applicants who might otherwise be missed in the admissions process stand out. In this work, we evaluate whether this claim is supported by physics graduate school admissions decisions. We used admissions data from five Ph.D.-granting physics departments over a 2-year period ($N=2537$) to see how the fraction of applicants admitted varied based on their physics GRE scores. We compared applicants with low GPAs to applicants with higher GPAs, applicants from large undergraduate universities to applicants from smaller undergraduate universities, and applicants from selective undergraduate institutions to applicants from less selective undergraduate institutions. We also performed a mediation and moderation analysis to provide statistical rigor and to better understand the previous relationships. We find that for applicants who might otherwise have been missed (e.g., have a low GPA or attended a small or less selective school), having a high physics GRE score did not seem to increase the applicant’s chances of being admitted to the schools. However, having a low physics GRE score seemed to penalize otherwise competitive applicants (i.e., applicants with mid to high GPAs). Thus, our work suggests that the physics GRE does not, in fact, help applicants who might otherwise be missed stand out.

Students’ motivational beliefs about physics can influence their learning outcomes as well as retention in their majors and career choices. Moreover, due to societal stereotypes and biases about who belongs in physics and can succeed in physics, women often have lower motivational beliefs about physics than men. The expectancy-value theory emphasizes the importance of self-efficacy and value in predicting students’ short- and long-term academic and professional outcomes, but there are few studies focusing on how the learning environment shapes these motivational beliefs of women and men. Investigating how the perception of learning environment in introductory physics courses for the engineering, physical science, and mathematics majors in their first year of college predicts the motivational beliefs of women and men can be useful in making the learning environments equitable and inclusive so that the underrepresented students, e.g., women, are not disadvantaged. In this study, we adapt prior identity framework to investigate how the learning environment (including sense of belonging, perceived peer interaction, and perceived recognition) predicts students’ physics self-efficacy, interest, and identity by controlling for their self-efficacy and interest at the beginning of a calculus-based introductory physics course. We surveyed 1203 students, 35% of whom identified as women. We found signatures of inequitable and noninclusive learning environment in that not only were female students’ physics self-efficacy and interest lower than male students’ at the beginning of the course, but the gender gaps in these motivational constructs became even larger by the end of the course. Analysis revealed that the decrease in students’ physics self-efficacy and interest were mediated by the learning environment and predicted students’ physics identity. We find that the perceived recognition played a major role in predicting students’ physics identity, and students’ sense of belonging in physics played an important role in explaining the change in students’ physics self-efficacy.

We show how learning can be improved, beyond that shown in actively taught classrooms, by also transforming the homework using the principles of deliberate practice. We measure the impact of transforming the homework on student learning in a course that had already implemented an active approach to teaching in class. We compare performance on the same final exam in equivalent cohorts of students over three semesters of an introductory physics course: the first taught with traditional lectures and traditional homework, the second taught with active instruction coupled with traditional homework, and the last taught with both active instruction and transformed homework. We find students in the semester where both active teaching and transformed homework are used scored significantly higher on the final exam than the students taught actively but with traditional homework. This learning gain achieved by transforming the homework is comparable to that achieved by replacing traditional lectures with active teaching strategies in class. We further show the positive effects of transforming the homework on student learning through a shorter, controlled experiment. When everything but the homework implementation is controlled, students scored 5%–10% higher on a test of learning following transformed homework compared with traditional homework. This significant improvement to learning occurs despite students spending a similar amount of time on task. This study represents an initial step towards understanding how deliberate practice can be extended to improve pedagogy beyond what happens in the classroom to the out-of-class homework.

This study examines students’ visual behaviors when they tackle two types of synthesis problems, sequential and simultaneous problems. Sequential synthesis tasks can be solved by applying pertinent concepts consecutively, whereas simultaneous synthesis tasks require concurrent application of multiple concepts. Twenty-two students from an introductory calculus-based physics course participated in the study. We used an eye-tracker to record the students’ eye movements when they silently reflected on how to solve the problems and subsequently when they talked aloud their problem-solving strategies. We found that the students made more gaze transitions between text and diagram for the simultaneous problems than for the sequential ones. However, they spent more time looking at the diagram and making within-diagram eye transitions in the sequential tasks than in the simultaneous tasks. Further, most students invoked two concepts to solve the sequential tasks but only one for the simultaneous tasks. These findings indicate that the students made less effort to link text and diagram in solving sequential problems but frequently attempted to integrate information within each diagram. The pattern for the simultaneous problems appeared to be reversed. Our results suggest that different types of synthesis (i.e., sequential and simultaneous) may differentially influence the ways students handle tasks. As suggested by the eye-tracker data and confirmed by the participants’ verbal explanations, students tend to divide the situation in sequential problems into subtasks but treat simultaneous problems as a single-step task.

The purpose of this study was to explore how students with high- and low-prior-knowledge employed multiple representations in argumentation evaluation and generation tasks. The argumentation performance and eye-movement behaviors of 96 college students in these tasks were investigated. The number of participants who proposed complex argumentation levels and the argumentation accuracy was higher in the high-prior-knowledge group than in the low-prior-knowledge group. Moreover, the high-prior-knowledge group demonstrated greater eye-movement transitions between representations compared with the low-prior-knowledge group. Both groups had greater transitions in the generation task than the evaluation tasks. The high-prior-knowledge group distributed attention to representations with more flexibility, revealing that they were more aware of the task requirements and more able to employ multiple representations for arguments. In the argumentation evaluation tasks, the high-prior-knowledge group performed referencing behaviors in the reading sequences between representation text and equation and between representation table and figure, whereas the low-prior-knowledge group was inclined to look back and forth between representation text and table. In the argumentation generation task, the two groups displayed similar reading sequences. It indicated that learners with higher knowledge may perceive the similarity between homogeneous representations and constrained interpretations of the complex representations by using easier representations, or further integrated representations to achieve deeper understanding, which then improved their argumentation performance. The implications of instructions for improving learners’ argumentation skills in a multirepresentational display are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the education system worldwide, which was forced to respond with a sudden shift to distance learning. While successful distance teaching requires careful thinking, planning, and the development of technological and human resources, there was no time for preparation in the current situation. Various physics courses, including lectures, tutorials, and laboratory courses, had to be transferred to online formats, resulting in a variety of simultaneous, asynchronous, and mixed activities. To investigate how physics students perceived the sudden shift to online learning, we developed a questionnaire and gathered data from $N=578$ physics students from five universities in Germany, Austria, and Croatia. In this article, we report how the problem-solving sessions (recitations) and laboratories were adapted, how students judge the different formats of the courses, and how useful and effective they perceived them. The results are correlated with the students’ self-efficacy ratings and other behavioral measures (such as self-regulated learning skills). This study is descriptive in nature, and a survey study design was implemented to examine the relationships among the variables. We found that good communication abilities ($r=0.48$, $p<0.001$) and self-organization skills ($r=0.63$, $p<0.001$) are positively correlated with perceived learning achievement. Furthermore, the previous duration of studies had a significant impact on several self-reported achievement measures, resulting in consistently lower scores of students in their first academic year compared with students who were further along academically. We draw conclusions and suggest implications for future online classes on the instructor and faculty level. Suggestions include (i) focusing on first-year courses with on-campus teaching when facing limited lecture hall capacities, (ii) offering special courses for promoting self-regulated learning skills, (iii) emphasizing the positive aspects of distance learning, and (iv) installing networking services for supporting student communication.

As a method to shorten the test time of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), we suggest the use of computerized adaptive testing (CAT). CAT is the process of administering a test on a computer, with items (i.e., questions) selected based upon the responses of the examinee to prior items. In so doing, the test length can be significantly shortened. As a step to develop a CAT-based version of the FCI (FCI-CAT), we examined the optimal test length of the FCI-CAT such that accuracy and precision [which we measure in terms of bias, standard error, and root-mean-square error (RMSE)] of Cohen’s $d$ would be comparable to that of the full FCI for a given class size. First, we estimated the item parameters of the FCI items based on the three-parameter logistic model of item response theory, which are used in the algorithm of CAT. For this estimation, we used 2882 responses of Japanese university students. Second, we conducted a Monte Carlo simulation to analyze how the bias, standard error, and RMSE of Cohen’s $d$ depend upon the test length. Third, we conducted a post hoc simulation to examine the consistency of the Monte Carlo results with what would have been obtained using empirical responses. For this comparison, we used 86 pairs of pre- and post- test responses of Japanese university students. As a result, we found that for a class size of 40, we may reduce the test length of the FCI-CAT to 15–19 items, thereby reducing the test time of the FCI to 50%–63%, with an accompanying decrease in accuracy and precision of only 5%–10%. The results of the Monte Carlo study and the post hoc simulation were consistent, which supports the adequacy of our Monte Carlo study and its relevance in terms of administering the FCI-CAT in real classrooms.

Women continue to be underrepresented in physics in the United States. This is while many Muslim majority (MM) countries have a high representation of women in undergraduate and graduate physics programs. While there is a growing awareness of this trend, little is being done to understand why and how this trend has manifested and how it can be used to inform broadening the participation of women in physics in the U.S. To better understand how cultural experiences can influence the pursuit of physics, this study examines the lived experiences of female physics faculty members in the U.S. who came from MM countries. The study draws on seven phenomenological interviews focusing on how cultural experiences shaped participants’ gender and physics identities. The results reveal several possible hypotheses on differences and similarities in how physics and gender identities intersect in MM countries as opposed to what has been found in the West. In particular, expressions of femininity in MM countries can have a more constructive intersection with expressions of physics identity in ways that promote participation and persistence.

Studies examining gender differences in introductory physics show a consensus when it comes to a gender gap on conceptual assessments; however, the story is not as clear when it comes to differences in gendered performance on exams. This study examined whether gendered differences exist on midterm and final exams in introductory physics courses and if such differences were correlated with a gender difference in final course grades. The population for this study included more than 10 000 students enrolled in algebra- and calculus-based introductory physics courses between Spring 2007 and Spring 2019. We found a small but statistically significant difference, with a weak effect size, in final letter grades for only one out of four courses: algebra-based mechanics. By looking at midterm exam grades, statistically significant differences were noted for some exams in three out of four courses, with calculus-based electricity and magnetism being the exception. In all statistically significant cases, the effect size was small or weak, indicating that performance on exams and final letter grades was not strongly dependent on gender. As an added dimension examining gendered differences, we investigated if differences exist when accounting for instructor gender. Additionally, a questionnaire was administered in Fall 2019 to more than 1600 students in both introductory sequences to explore students’ perceptions of performance, class contributions, and inclusion. We observed some differences between students’ perception of their performance and contribution when grouped by gender, but no difference on perception of inclusion.

Quantum sensing, quantum networking and communication, and quantum computing have attracted significant attention recently, as these quantum technologies could offer significant advantages over existing technologies. In order to accelerate the commercialization of these quantum technologies, the workforce must be equipped with the necessary skills. Through a qualitative study of the quantum industry, in a series of interviews with 21 U.S. companies carried out in Fall 2019, we describe the types of activities being carried out in the quantum industry, profile the types of jobs that exist, and describe the skills valued across the quantum industry, as well as in each type of job. The current routes into the quantum industry are detailed, providing a picture of the current role of higher education in training the quantum workforce. Finally, we present the training and hiring challenges the quantum industry is facing and how higher education may optimize the important role it is currently playing.

In this mixed-methods study of large enrollment introductory physics service courses, I investigated students’ perception and use of online education resources as supplements to course-provided materials and activities. Specifically, I focused on the increasing use of popular free online media resources such as YouTube and Khan Academy, and fee-based textbook solution repository services such as Chegg. In the quantitative portion of this study, I surveyed students from three courses on their textbook and online resource usage and found that most students relied primarily on online resources as they navigated the courses, and comparatively few used the textbook regularly. In the qualitative portion, I investigated the patterns and culture of textbook and online resource usage via semistructured interviews and found that students reported using online resources as supplements to, or in place of, the course-provided materials when engaging with online homework or studying for an exam. Students reported using online resources productively to guide learning efforts, but also acknowledged unproductive uses such as copying solutions to mitigate loss of assignment points. I provide suggestions for changes in course materials, practices, and expectations to better engage students in the course and in their learning.