Providing appropriate support is important for helping students manage conceptual difficulties in physics. Established scaffolding methods, such as structured tiered support, can be effective but are often resource-intensive to develop and implement broadly. AI chatbots may offer a more easily scalable alternative, but their potential as learning support tools needs to be examined carefully and in direct comparison with established forms of support. As a first step, this study compares a custom-configured AI chatbot, a tiered support system, and traditional textbook-style textual support with respect to students’ perceived cognitive load and affective-motivational outcomes during physics problem solving. In a cluster randomized field study, 268 ninth-grade students in Germany worked individually on a buoyancy problem using one of the three support formats. We measured intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load and affective-motivational outcomes (enjoyment, hope, hopelessness, self-efficacy, and situational interest) via research-validated questionnaires. Results showed that the AI chatbot and the tiered support system were associated with significantly lower perceived intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load than textual support. Post-test comparisons showed that students in the chatbot condition reported more favorable affective-motivational outcomes than students in the textual-support condition, while differences between the chatbot and tiered-support conditions were not statistically significant. Overall, the findings suggest that interactive support formats may shape students’ short-term perceived cognitive and affective-motivational experiences during physics problem solving; future research should examine how these experiences relate to solution quality, conceptual learning, and longer-term outcomes.

This study examines the extent to which physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are aware of introductory physics student thinking and the types of challenges introductory students commonly have with energy and momentum concepts, which is important for implementing active learning methodologies and supporting diverse learners in physics courses. We present findings from a TA professional development course and discuss an approach to investigate TAs’ pedagogical content knowledge, specifically their ability to recognize introductory student conceptual difficulties. We investigated 70 first-year graduate TAs’ ability to identify common introductory physics student alternate conceptions on the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS). The TAs participated in a professional development course that emphasized reflection on introductory student thinking patterns to promote evidence-based pedagogical practices. TAs predicted the most common incorrect answers introductory students would select after lecture-based instruction, then compared their predictions with actual data from introductory students followed by a class discussion. This reflection process can promote robust understanding of introductory student thinking patterns, which is essential for effective teaching that accounts for how introductory students make sense of physics concepts. Results reveal gaps between TAs’ perceptions and introductory student thinking, with TAs performing poorly on many of the analyzed questions. For example, TAs consistently overestimated that introductory physics students would use novice-like thinking in many situations posed in EMCS problems, i.e., they expected introductory physics students to make more novice-like errors than they actually did. These findings have important implications for effective instructional design, e.g., physics TAs who misunderstand introductory physics student capabilities may inadvertently create barriers to learning by spending valuable class time on either overscaffolding or underchallenging introductory physics learners and not spending time on pedagogical issues that are important to address.

There are few studies that compare several theoretical models concerning conceptual understanding. We hypothesize that different models can provide complementary perspectives. In this work, we analyze the video and audio data from an interview with one student (Mark) using three different theoretical models: framework theory (FWT), knowledge-in-pieces (KiP), and social semiotics (SS). The interview discusses distances and sizes in the local universe (Earth, Moon, and Sun) and observable astronomical phenomena: the apparent sizes of the Moon and Sun, solar eclipses, and lunar phases. The results suggest a misconception (from FWT), a localized p-prim (from KiP), and a transductive chain (from SS). However, much more than the individual contributions, the results suggest the complementary nature of the different models. We argue for more work that combines different models both to understand data in a more detailed and nuanced way and to advance theory.

The completion of graduate-level coursework is an important milestone on the path to a doctoral degree in physics. Yet the structure and content of the graduate curricula remain largely undocumented. Here we provide the first national-scale analysis of the graduate-level quantum curriculum, drawing on catalogs from 184 institutions, 121 core quantum course syllabi, and 91 quantum field theory (QFT) course syllabi. Our results reveal the majority of graduate programs require two quantum courses (60.3%) and most commonly use Sakurai’s Modern Quantum Mechanics textbook (41.2%). Core quantum syllabi converged on four canonical topics: kinematics, angular momentum, approximations, and dynamics. While QFT may be considered advanced coursework that is not necessary for all research fields, it remains essential for describing relativistic and multiparticle systems, yet it is nearly absent from the physics education research (PER) literature. We found that 39% of graduate programs had no formal QFT course offering. Statistical analyses revealed that smaller graduate programs with less research activity were more likely not to offer a QFT course, raising concerns about equity and access. Among institutions that did offer QFT courses, a canonical set of topics emerged: interacting fields, Feynman diagrams, quantum electrodynamics, and radiative corrections. We provide comparisons to the undergraduate quantum curriculum, as well as recommendations to instructors and programs.

Initial physics teacher education frequently approaches kinematics problem solving as a procedural activity, with limited engagement in conceptual reasoning, argumentation, and metacognitive regulation. This study examines the effects of Socratic dialogue mediated by generative artificial intelligence (GAI), compared with teacher-guided Socratic dialogue alone, on discipline-specific critical thinking (CT) in one-dimensional kinematics. A concurrent mixed-methods, within-group preexperimental design was implemented with 18 preservice physics teachers working in small groups across two sequential phases using parallel kinematics problem sets. Because the instructional conditions were implemented in a fixed order, the observed differences cannot be disentangled from possible practice, learning, and carryover effects. In the first stage, students engaged in instructor-guided Socratic dialogue; in the second stage, the same structure was maintained while incorporating GAI-mediated Socratic support under instructor supervision. Critical thinking was assessed through an analytic rubric applied to written group solutions and complemented by Likert-scale surveys and open-ended responses. Rubric scores showed consistent improvement during the GAI-mediated phase across all groups, with no observed declines. Students also reported higher self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, while cognitive load exhibited heterogeneous responses associated with the need for verification and epistemic control when interacting with GAI. These results suggest that integrating generative AI into a teacher-mediated Socratic framework can support critical thinking in kinematics, although the sequential preexperimental design requires cautious interpretation.

Project-based learning (PBL), recognized as an active learning strategy, has been linked to students’ self-efficacy in prior studies, including those within physics education research. Meanwhile, technological advancements have significantly facilitated the optimization of diverse learning modes, including online learning. However, comprehensive investigations addressing questions such as how students perceive PBL and their self-efficacy, what forms of PBL design they prefer, and what benefits and challenges they encounter during its implementation remain underexplored in existing literature. This work presents the results of 1- and 2-year pedagogical research on 10 students as preservice physics teachers in an online PBL physics class, focusing on its influence on their self-efficacy within a phenomenological study. Data were collected via semistructured, in-depth interviews. Social cognitive theory, Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, and a theoretical framework for the impact of project-based learning on educational outcomes were employed as guiding frameworks to shape the interpretation of students’ experiences and perspectives. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, the researchers identified three primary themes representing the students’ experiences. There are (1) variety of unique learning experiences based on students’ perceptions about their character, (2) pivotal experiences as catalysts in the learning process, and (3) student self-awareness. The findings contribute novel insights for educators in implementing PBL, particularly in online contexts, by highlighting strategies to accommodate diverse student personality characteristics. Moreover, the latest findings in this study, compared with relevant research that has been done previously, are discussed. The study offers valuable references for research on the interplay between PBL and self-efficacy. Possible directions for further research are discussed.

We compare open- and closed-response versions of two questions that measure students’ reasoning on the Physics Measurement Questionnaire, same mean different spread (SMDS), and different mean same spread (DMSS). We conducted an experiment in one class ($N=248$) to test if asking students for their reasoning on an open-response question changes their answer to the closed-response question. To test whether answering the open-response question alters students’ closed-response answers, we prompted half of the students to explain their reasoning before seeing the closed-response options, while the other half went straight to the closed-response reasoning options. We find no effect of asking students their reasoning in an open-response question on their subsequent closed-response answers. Additionally, we investigated whether we measure students’ reasoning differently on the closed-response versus open-response versions of the question by evaluating the consistency between the students’ open-response and closed-response answers. Although we measure similarities in students’ reasoning across the two methods, the differences indicate that the open-response and closed-response questions provide different information. The results inform the need for critical judgment when deciding between open- and closed-response assessment formats.

Large language models (LLMs) often face challenges in generating accurate and coherent explanations when solving physics questions. Prompt engineering serves as an effective strategy for human-artificial intelligence communication, guiding LLMs to generate precise and contextually relevant responses with well-designed instructions. The study utilized prompt engineering on the Coze platform to construct two types of instructional agents: a teacher-centered agent and a student-centered agent. They were designed to respond to students’ questions in accordance with their respective roles and communication styles. Specifically, the teacher-centered agent tended to provide authoritative, professionally grounded, and content-focused responses, whereas the student-centered agent was designed to be more attentive to students’ prior knowledge and learning needs, offering adaptive and supportive guidance. The study compared the effects of these two agents on students’ learning performance, cognitive load, flow experience, and empathy perception. The results revealed differential effects between the two prompt-engineered agent conditions. Compared with the teacher-centered agent, students interacting with the student-centered agent condition showed higher learning performance, lower extraneous cognitive load, stronger germane cognitive engagement, greater flow experience, and higher empathy perception.

Physics students, teachers, and preservice teachers (PSTs) struggle with the abstract nature of quantum mechanics (QM), which has led to calls for a more conceptual approach to QM teaching and learning. In response, this study uses a novel analogy between Kundt’s tube and the infinite quantum well to elicit discussion of ontological issues. We investigated PSTs’ use of ontologies, including their interpretation of the wave function. Nine PSTs participated in the analogy lesson; dialogues were recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. We identified five different ontologies: one classical and four quantum ontologies. The importance of probabilities in PSTs’ quantum ontologies stood out. Three ontologies (probabilistic particle, particle-wave, and probabilistic wave) expand the particle-wave duality, while the fourth (wave collapse) added a dynamic element to this axis. PSTs often used a single ontology in response to one aspect of the analogy but switched flexibly between ontologies across aspects of the analogy that they discussed. Concerning the wave function, we found both realist and formalist stances, revealing a diversity of interpretations that contrasts with the uniformity of the formalist QM courses PSTs had attended. We conclude that explicit attention to ontological issues in QM, supported by classical-quantum analogies, provides insight into PSTs’ ontological reasoning and offers a conceptual approach to teaching and learning QM. We present recommendations for PST training and implications for QM teaching reform.

The physics education research (PER) literature on quantum mechanics (QM) often acknowledges and minimizes what we refer to as the enigma of QM, viewing these aspects of QM as a challenge to overcome, rather than an inherent feature to be leveraged for learning. Using the overlapping theories of knowledge-in-pieces and resource theory as connected to an epistemological framing perspective, we focus on students’ descriptions of the enigma of QM and the epistemological frames that students view as relevant when approaching QM. Data comes from interviews with 10 undergraduate physics students who had learned quantum physics topics across different courses in the curriculum, ranging from sophomore-level modern physics to an advanced undergraduate-level QM course. To elicit students’ ideas on QM, the interview protocol emphasized their perspectives and empowerment when possible. Iterative rounds of qualitative analysis coded the data for how students described enigmatic aspects of QM, along with three epistemological frames students identified as their reasoning strategies: reasoning about scale, reasoning about the connections between QM and mathematics, and reasoning about the connections between QM and classical mechanics. The results document that students are aware that something about QM is unexplainable, an enigma to acknowledge. We argue that acknowledgment of the enigma of QM is a key part of what we refer to as thinking quantumly. Additionally, the epistemological frame of reasoning about scale has not been widely discussed in the QM-PER literature, which students use to distinguish QM from classical mechanics and to explain why mathematical models are needed. These results are important for amplifying students’ voices in how they approach enigmatic aspects of QM. Thus, our results begin to move the QM-PER literature beyond viewing enigmatic aspects of QM as obstacles to be corrected through refined instruction, toward an asset-based orientation as a source of meaningful insights for the learning process.

This study analyzed the relation between self-efficacy (SE) and sense of belonging (BL) in introductory physics courses by measuring these variables at two time points, early in the semester and midsemester. The study was performed in the introductory, calculus-based mechanics class at a large university in the United States and includes 1373 complete records. An extensive set of Observed Prior Causes (OPCs), including Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation pretest scores, college and high school preparation variables, high school physics and math variables, personality variables, and demographics, were found to be predictive of SE or BL. Early in the semester, SE and BL were highly correlated ($r=0.56$); after controlling for OPCs, $r=0.37$ of this correlation remained. SE fully explained the relation of BL to midsemester test average, while OPCs fully explained the relation of SE to test average. Changes to SE and BL in response to course feedback in the form of test averages were also explored. Test average explained little of the relation between early and midsemester SE or BL. The analysis supported a model where test average predicted midsemester SE, which in turn predicted midsemester BL. Mediation analysis found both directed and correlational paths were important in explaining the complex relation of these variables. Some moderation effects were detected, but were generally small.

This paper presents a social network analysis of the professional support networks of 100 LGBTQ+ and/or women Ph.D. physicists, comparing the networks based on the career sectors of academia, industry, and government/nonprofit. The methods for constructing and analyzing the ego networks, which are novel in many ways, are explained in greater detail in an earlier publication (C. Hatcher et al. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 21, 020603 (2025)). We describe the networks of the whole group and use statistical tests of independence to explore differences between sectors in terms of whole network metrics, network composition based on alter (network member) characteristics, and support. We find that alters associated with groups (like affinity groups and personal and professional interest groups) are more likely to provide identity-based and community-building support, participants in academia have fewer personal friends in their networks, while those in industry have more; participants in government report less instrumental support, and those in academia report less material support. These results and others lead to suggestions for employers in these sectors on how to better support these physicists, including continuing to promote participation in affinity and interest groups, providing more material support and/or personal time in the academic sector, and more instrumental support in the form of professional development or training in the government sector.

This study examines the pedagogical quality and instructional adequacy of analogies included in high school physics textbooks (grades 9–12) in Türkiye. The analogies extracted systematically from 15 physics textbooks revealed a significant imbalance in their use across grade levels. The vast majority of the analogies were concentrated in the 10th grade textbooks, while their occurrence in other grades remained quite limited. A similar imbalance was also observed in subject focus: most of the analogies were allocated to the conceptually challenging and highly abstract topic of electricity, while other fundamental physics topics were largely neglected. In terms of pedagogical quality, all of the analogies were classified as either moderate or good according to Glynn’s teaching-with-analogies model. However, most of the analogies reviewed lacked a step for identifying their limitations, thereby increasing the risk of misalignment and the development of misconceptions. The analogies were also predominantly of the concrete-abstract type, which helps students connect abstract physics concepts to concrete examples from daily life, and were largely based on functional similarity, meaning they focus on how the concept works rather than its structural features. Furthermore, the increased emphasis on the relevance of analogies to learners’ backgrounds reflects a positive trend toward enhancing the contextual richness of analogies. To address the quantitative insufficiency of analogies and the imbalance across subject areas, it is essential that curriculum developers position analogical thinking as a required pedagogical tool for textbook authors.

Physics demonstrations are celebrated for enlivening lectures and anchoring understanding, yet remarkably little is known about how the choice of demonstration materials, namely, familiar household objects versus specialized laboratory equipment, may shape students’ affective evaluations. A total of 288 secondary and college students observed two resonance demonstrations—one using wine glasses as everyday focal objects and one using tuning forks as laboratory focal objects—and completed a survey requesting an overall preference (household/lab/no preference) and Likert ratings on seven perception items for each demonstration. Demonstration order was counterbalanced across class sessions to guard against sequence effects. Overall, students far more often preferred the wine-glass demonstration (58.3%) over the tuning-fork demonstration (14.9%), with 26.7% reporting no strong preference; this preference pattern was consistent across both secondary and college students and did not differ significantly between male and female students. Preference distributions were also independent of presentation order. Paired comparisons showed that the household demonstration was rated significantly higher in interestingness, novelty, relevance to daily life, and its ability to stimulate interest in science. Importantly, clarity of the phenomenon and self-reported support for understanding resonance did not differ significantly between the two demonstrations, supporting the interpretation that the preference for the household condition is not attributable to the phenomenon being easier to observe or the concept easier to grasp. The results are theoretically grounded in cognitive load and situated cognition frameworks to explain how material-based contextualization may enhance student engagement without increasing perceived cognitive burden. These findings suggest that a seemingly simple instructional design choice, i.e., using a recognizable household object as the focal material in a physics demonstration, can meaningfully enhance student engagement and perceived relevance without sacrificing conceptual clarity.

Empirical research on whether offering history of science electives at the university level enhances students’ understanding of the nature of science (NOS) remains scarce. This study aims to investigate the impact of enrolling in a history of science course on undergraduates’ understanding of the nature of science. In this study, the history of physics elective employed three distinct instructional methods: conventional lecture-based teaching, lecture-based teaching combined with explicit instruction and individual reflection, and lecture-based teaching combined with explicit instruction and group reflection. Teaching effectiveness was assessed by administering the SUSSI questionnaire to 160 participants before and after the course, supplemented by cognitive network analysis of students’ reflective reports on the nature of science within the authentic context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A randomly selected control group of non-STEM majors who did not enroll in the course was included for comparison. Results demonstrated that all three instructional models significantly improved students’ NOS conceptions across multiple dimensions, with the explicit instruction and group reflection approach showing optimal comprehensive effectiveness. However, none of the instructional models produced a statistically significant improvement in students’ understanding of the scientific laws and theories dimension.

Mathematical descriptions are the focus of quantum physics education research, as quantum physics is inherently described by its mathematical structures. However, there is a lack of research regarding the role of mathematical descriptions for understanding fundamental principles of quantum physics in teacher preparation and training. In order to investigate how preservice teachers and in-service teachers assess and understand the mathematical formalism in quantum physics, an explorative interview study was conducted. Therefore, we developed a teaching-learning sequence employing a reduced Dirac formalism in the context of single-photon polarization serving as an exemplary two-state system. In that respect, the focus was on two mathematical representations. The ket notation was used as an algebraic representation in connection with the Bloch sphere as a graphical representation of quantum states. On that basis, semistructured and material-based interviews with $N=15$ preservice teachers and $N=15$ in-service teachers were conducted. The data suggest that the reduced Dirac formalism is well understood and accepted by both preservice teachers and in-service teachers. However, some in-service teachers raise critical concerns about the abstract nature of the mathematical formalism, pointing to a perceived lack of experimental or phenomenological connection. The ket notation is valued not only for its communicative clarity and its role as a language but also for its structural role. By comparison, the Bloch sphere is met with more cautious acceptance—yet its use in visualizing experiments and measurement processes is positively assessed.

Many organizations and researchers within the physics community have highlighted the need to improve undergraduate programs in areas such as pedagogy and the representation of marginalized students. Although many physics programs have actively attempted to address these challenges, the impact of these efforts has yet to be reflected broadly in the physics community. Our previous work highlighted standard cultural practices around the approach of physics faculty to educational change. We found that physics faculty often initiate educational change in an individualistic way that is rushed and ad hoc, while ignoring the use of formal evidence. To address this shortcoming, disciplinary organizations have developed initiatives like the Departmental Action Leadership Institute (DALI). In particular, DALI was developed to support physics faculty in becoming better change agents and learning effective leadership and collaboration practices to pursue educational change in their local programs. In our investigations of this institute, we developed case studies of five DALI physics programs. Each case study program followed the DALI recommendations and built teams following the Departmental Action Team (DAT) model to pursue local change. In this project, we studied and documented the emerging idioculture within these five DATs. We used a multiple case study methodology and collected data from multiple sources. We found that the emerging idioculture was different from the departments’ dominant cultures in ways that support collaborative approaches to educational change. We also found that these DATs take a deliberate and strategic approach to the change effort by taking time to consider the context and feasibility of the change effort. Finally, we found that these DATs center formal evidence and students’ voices in their decision-making processes. We present the results and discuss how the emerging idioculture in these DATs is situated within dominant departmental cultures of educational change.

Developing expertlike problem-solving skills is a central goal of undergraduate physics education. In this study, we investigate the impact of teaching explicit problem-solving frameworks, combined with deliberate practice, on students’ problem-solving approaches. Using multidimensional scaling to analyze students’ decision-making patterns, we compare the similarity of students taught with these methods to physics experts and to students taught with traditional repeated practice. Our results show that students who received structured frameworks and targeted feedback through deliberate practice exhibited problem-solving behaviors significantly more aligned with those of experts. These findings suggest that pedagogies emphasizing explicit strategy instruction and feedback are more effective than rote repetition for fostering expertise. We recommend the integration of these approaches into physics curricula to better support the development of skilled and adaptive problem solvers.

Energy is a central idea in physics, but students often learn energy as a set of loosely connected terms, equations, and conservation statements rather than as an integrated explanatory framework. Prior physics education research (PER) has shown that students have persistent difficulty identifying appropriate systems, tracing energy changes across systems and forms, and applying energy conservation in unfamiliar contexts. Drawing on the knowledge integration perspective and on research on systems-based energy reasoning, this study developed a conceptual framework for a ninth-grade energy unit in which the work and energy relation served as the central organizing relation linking energy change, energy conservation, and contextualized problem solving. We implemented a conceptual-framework-based instructional intervention and compared it with regular textbook-sequence instruction in a quasi-experimental study involving two intact ninth-grade classes in China. Both groups studied the same curriculum content for the same amount of instructional time and were taught by the same teacher. Analysis of covariance showed that, after controlling for pretest performance, the intervention group significantly outperformed the control group on the overall post-test score and on the three conceptual categories of energy change, energy conservation, and the work and energy relation. Statistical mediation analyses further showed that the intervention group’s post-test advantage was associated with students’ performance on the work and energy relation. In the post-test mediation model, this indirect association was larger for atypical context performance than for typical context performance. These findings provide classroom-based evidence that reorganizing energy instruction around a core conceptual relation can support students’ integrated understanding and application of energy ideas. The study contributes to PER by extending conceptual-framework-based instruction to a broader secondary energy unit and by clarifying how a work-centered organization may support reasoning beyond familiar surface features.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) marks a potential inflection point in the way academic information is accessed, raising fundamental questions about the evolving role of search in student learning. This study examines this shift by analyzing longitudinal trends in physics-related search and page-view activity, using declines in traditional search behavior as a quantitative proxy for changes in independent information-seeking practices. We analyze Google Trends data for core concepts in classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and optics across three academic years (2022–2025) in more than 20 countries and complement this analysis with Wikipedia page-view data across seven major languages to establish platform independence. The results reveal a substantial, systematic, and persistent global decline in search and page-view activity across most examined physics topics. The magnitude of this decline is domain-dependent, with mechanics-related content showing sharper and more consistent reductions than content related to electromagnetism and optics. Pronounced geographic and linguistic heterogeneity is observed: while English-speaking regions show relative stability or only moderate declines, non-English-speaking regions exhibit substantially larger reductions in traditional, search-based information-seeking activity. Despite the overall decrease in volume, the seasonal structure characteristic of academic activity remains robust. Taken together, these findings indicate a redistribution of physics-related information-seeking behavior in academic contexts where generative tools are increasingly available.