[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] This article details methodologies employed to enable sharing and coconstructing the stories of three women’s lives in physics. The first case explores the usefulness of timeline interviewing, where participants narrate episodes that are coconstructed with the researcher as meaningful over time. We illustrate this method in the case of a mature student in Sweden from a working-class background who shared moments that added up to a life outside of physics and then a sharp turn into physics later in life. The second case explores life-history interviewing using a narrative-inquiry approach and deep relationship building which enabled the coconstruction of stories of experiences over time. These moments are coconstructed with the researcher and analyzed using an intersectionality lens to yield a story depicting the transnational experiences of a woman of color moving across various European contexts into the North American physics context. The final case is of a first-generation Canadian woman of color who shared her navigations of in and out of school physics via a method known as the “Rivers of Life.” Using this method, the participant narrates their experiences with physics as a river, using metaphorical tools like rafts, rocks, rapids, tributaries to discuss various moments described as twists and turns over time that together amount to a life in physics. We discuss the value of different approaches to coconstructing narratives with participants and, in particular, the need for this kind of research in physics contexts.

Uncertainty is an important and fundamental concept in physics education. Students are often first exposed to uncertainty in introductory labs, expand their knowledge across lab courses, and then are introduced to quantum mechanical uncertainty in upper-division courses. This study is part of a larger project evaluating student thinking about uncertainty across these contexts. In this research, we investigate advanced physics student thinking about uncertainty by asking them conceptual questions about how a hypothetical distribution of measurements would change if “more” or “better” data were collected in four different experimental scenarios. The scenarios include both classical and quantum experiments, as well as experiments that theoretically result in an expected single value or an expected distribution. This investigation is motivated by our goal of finding insights into students’ potential point- and setlike thinking about uncertainty and of shining light on the limitations of those binary paradigms.

This study seeks to determine whether giving an explicit incentive to students in an upper-division first-semester electromagnetism course (EM1), in the form of partial credit for reworking unit exam problems, will improve their problem-solving skills as measured by performance on identical problems on the final exam. Three problems–a primarily algorithmic problem, a primarily conceptual problem, and a problem that blended conceptual with algorithmic–were selected and analyzed over the course of three consecutive sections of EM1, for which each student could freely choose whether or not to rework mistakes on each one of the given problems in exchange for the aforementioned partial credit. Regression models were chosen for quantitative analysis, with the covariate being unit exam performance and whether the student reworked the problem. Results indicate that overall, students who choose to rework problems perform better on the final exam attempt, at a level that often does not correlate strongly with unit exam performance, whereas students who decline to rework problems have a stronger correlation between unit exam and final exam performances. The results show a clear difference between the two stages of problem-solving, namely, invoking the correct principles and applying the principles, where the latter showed a more significant effect with a much larger effect size. Qualitative analysis of a sample of students interviewed about their exam solutions showed that reworking an exam problem for some students did result in more expertlike problem-solving trends; that being said, there were instances of persistent novicelike trends regardless of reworking, as well as instances of students independently reviewing unit exam problems in preparation for the final even though the partial credit incentive was declined at the time of the unit exam. Thus, while the intervention showed overall benefits insofar as exam performance is concerned, the usage of more well-defined scaffolding, e.g., tutorials, may prove a more thorough and definite benefit for improving problem-solving skills.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] In recent years, physics instructional labs have been under considerable research and development. However, there seems to be no shared understanding of how the assessment of instructional labs should be arranged to best serve students’ learning and development of expertise. This literature review intends to fill this gap by reviewing the research on classroom assessment of instructional labs from the perspectives of different objectives, purposes, and agents of assessment. The review reveals that classroom assessment in instructional labs has mostly focused on summative assessment, leaving the possibilities of formative assessment understudied. Further, assessment has been conducted mostly by teachers and teaching assistants, and the possibilities for students’ participation in assessment remain unutilized. Two major gaps in the research on instructional labs were identified. The first gap concerns students’ active participation in assessment. Given the active role that students have in the laboratory, their agency in assessment appears to be narrow. The second gap concerns the inclusion of metaskills and perspectives on lifelong learning and work life in assessment. We summarize our findings into a research-based model that assists in the consideration and balancing of different objectives, purposes, and agents in the design of classroom assessment of instructional labs.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] We present the pedagogical design and implementation of “ESSENCe”: Experimental problem solving using Staging, Scaffolding, Embedded information sources, iNstruments, and Collaboration. Research in experimental physics requires problem-solving skills that include designing investigations, developing instrumentation techniques, troubleshooting, planning data analysis, and evaluating experimental outcomes. Most of these skills can be taught at the undergraduate level but are unfortunately skipped in traditional cookbook-recipe style labs. Since many physics experiments require electronics, the ESSENCe pedagogy presented here has been developed in the context of undergraduate electronics laboratory courses. The goals of ESSENCe labs are to help students apply their theoretical knowledge of electronics to hands-on open-ended experiments, understand properties of physical systems and limitations of measurements, and to learn how to work with sophisticated instruments used in experimental research. ESSENCe emphasizes collaboration with peers and teaching assistants. This paper presents the results of ESSENCe implementation in a sophomore undergraduate analog electronics lab of 45–60 students over multiple years in a top-ranked technological university in India. A mixed methods study was conducted to analyze students’ development of experimental problem-solving skills through repeated measures of performance on experimental tests and video analysis of students working on the experiments. We found statistically significant improvement in students’ experimental problem-solving skills over the course of a semester. The study also analyzed students’ perceptions about the benefits and challenges of the open-ended collaborative lab.

Instructors and researchers often use research-based assessments to identify the impact of instructional activities. These investigations often focus on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusions by comparing outcomes across social identity groups (e.g., gender, race, and class). Comparisons across groups assume the assessments measure the same factors in the same way across social identity groups. Very few research-based assessments, however, have validation evidence to support this assumption. Measurement invariance testing provides validity evidence that an assessment measures latent factors (e.g., Newtonian thinking or physics identity) equivalently across groups. We examined the measurement invariance of the Eaton and Willoughby five (EW5) factor model on the Force Concept Inventory. We found evidence for measurement invariance across the intersections of gender (men and women) and race or ethnicity (Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, and White Hispanic). These results indicate that performance differences across the five factors can further understanding of equity in physics courses. Without measurement invariance, such work could produce misleading results that undermine efforts to support equity in physics courses.

Physics graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are tasked with multifaceted teaching assignments, such as leading tutorials and inquiry-based laboratories, yet their professional development rarely includes opportunities to rehearse complex pedagogical skills or receive feedback on their teaching. In this study, physics GTAs practiced specific pedagogical skills during four sessions in a mixed-reality classroom simulator; here, we focus on GTAs’ use of a specific questioning strategy called “Stretch-It.” GTAs can apply Stretch-It by asking students to explain their logic (Explain Logic), either by explaining their work or providing evidence for their claim; or by asking students to take the content further (Follow-Up), either by applying it in an analogous situation or answering the initial question in another way. We found GTAs used all four types of Stretch-It subcategories during simulator sessions that incorporated facilitator feedback about their use of questioning. We also compared the use of Stretch-It questioning in the classroom for a pretraining semester cohort and the high-intensity simulator training cohort and found that the high-intensity cohort’s average use of Explain Logic questions in the observation immediately following the Stretch-It rehearsal was meaningfully higher than the pretraining cohort’s average use of Explain Logic. However, the high-intensity cohort’s use of Explain Logic is unstable, and values fall back within the pretraining average in subsequent classroom observations. We did not find a significant difference between the cohorts’ use of Follow-Up. We discuss the implications of our findings for science, technology, engineering, and medicine GTA professional development and the significance of providing feedback to GTAs about their teaching.

This study aimed at evaluating how students perceive the linguistic quality and scientific accuracy of ChatGPT responses to physics comprehension questions. A total of 102 first- and second-year physics students were confronted with three questions of progressing difficulty from introductory mechanics (rolling motion, waves, and fluid dynamics). Each question was presented with four different responses. All responses were attributed to ChatGPT, but in reality, one sample solution was created by the researchers. All ChatGPT responses obtained in this study were wrong, imprecise, incomplete, or misleading. We found little differences in the perceived linguistic quality between ChatGPT responses and the sample solution. However, the students rated the overall scientific accuracy of the responses significantly differently, with the sample solution being rated best for the questions of low and medium difficulty. The discrepancy between the sample solution and the ChatGPT responses increased with the level of self-assessed knowledge of the question content. For the question of highest difficulty (fluid dynamics) that was unknown to most students, a ChatGPT response was rated just as good as the sample solution. Thus, this study provides data on the students’ perception of ChatGPT responses and the factors influencing their perception. The results highlight the need for careful evaluation of ChatGPT responses both by instructors and students, particularly regarding scientific accuracy. Therefore, future research could explore the potential of similar “spot the bot” activities in physics education to foster students’ critical thinking skills.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] Since the beginning of the 21st century, the appropriation of the sociocultural perspective by the physics education research community has represented a linguistic turn in the field, pointing out a promising path to overcome the dominance of the “individual paradigm,” both in terms of student learning and initial and continuing teacher training. This approach views science, science education, and research as human social activities embedded in larger sociocultural and institutional contexts, implying a significant theoretical importance to the role of social interaction and the context in which these interactions occur, viewing them as critical to a better understanding of the learning process rather than merely as a secondary role. In this theoretical framework, language plays a fundamental role as a mediator of human action, notably, it is the main system of signs used by humankind. Hence, we recognize the origin of sociocultural perspectives in Lev Vygotsky’s sociohistorical psychology. The neo-Vygotskian James Wertsch proposes a “continuity” of Vygotsky’s theory by emphasizing one of its unexplored assumptions: the characterization of human action as an activity mediated by signs and instruments. In this theoretical construction of a sociocultural approach to human action, the philosophy of language of Mikhail Bakhtin Circle becomes crucial. Data of discursive nature (oral and written speech of the instructor and their pupils, textbooks, or official documents) may be analyzed in physics education research, particularly those focusing on classroom situations (typically didactic interventions). We employed Bakhtinian analysis to avoid the text’s objectivist (positivist) stance and the structural deterministic idea of ideological interpellation suggested by Althusser and endorsed by Pêcheux’s discourse analysis. In order to contribute to a qualitative research technique for discursive data analysis, we explain the Circle’s theory and translate it into possible methodologies for research in physics education. We suggest an “analytical trajectory” based on this as a possible arrangement of the interpretation of discursive data under Bakhtin’s metalinguistic. Finally, we exemplify the use of this analytical trajectory in our research group’s works.

Underrepresentation of women in physics is a prominent issue in the western countries. Since physics teachers are in a unique position to affect new generations of students, it has been suggested that they are an important part of the solution. In this paper, we explore how trainee physics teachers create spaces for themselves as learners of physics while negotiating their positioning as women and trainee teachers. The empirical data consist of interviews with 17 trainee physics students, and the analysis focuses predominantly on the identity negotiations of three woman students. We find that the women simultaneously submit to and master a “physics nerd” discourse that connects physics with nerdiness, masculinity, and intelligence, which enables them to successfully create subject positions incorporating physics student, teacher-student, femininity, and constructive study practice. This is of particular importance to trainee physics teachers, who will be responsible for creating inclusive and productive physics learning environments for their students.

Problem Roulette (PR), an online study service at the University of Michigan, offers points-free formative practice to students preparing for examinations in introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses. Using four years of PR data involving millions of problem attempts by thousands of students, we quantify the benefits of increased practice study volume in introductory physics. After conditioning the mean final grade on standardized (ACT and SAT) math test score, we analyze deviations based on student study volume. We find a strong effect; mean course grade rises quadratically with the logarithm of the total number of PR questions encountered over the term ($N_{\mathrm{Q},\mathrm{tot}}$), with an overall gain of $0.77\pm 0.12$ grade points between $1<N_{\mathrm{Q},\mathrm{tot}}<1000$. The gains are persistent across the range of math test scores represented in our sample. While $N_{\mathrm{Q},\mathrm{tot}}$ surely correlates with other study habits, the benefits of increased study in general still hold. A model for final grade using test score and study volume largely accounts for demographic stratification, including by sex, parental education level, number of parents at home, nationality or underrepresented minority status, and regional income level, with two significant exceptions: students whose parents did not earn a college degree, who earn $-0.27\pm 0.04$ grade points ($6.1\sigma$) below expectations, and underrepresented minority students at $-0.14\pm 0.04$ points ($3.6\sigma$). Residual scatter in final grade remains comparable to the maximal study gains, implying that the model is far from deterministic: individual variation trumps mean trends. Our findings can help motivate students to study more and help teachers to identify which types of students may especially need such encouragement.

Despite the high demand for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals, the STEM talent pipeline continues to leak. A framework of STEM identity could provide insight into why and to what extent individuals engage in STEM-related activities. The present study describes the process of developing and validating an instrument for assessing students’ STEM identity. This instrument was created using the conceptual framework of science identity as its foundation. It aims to conceptualize student STEM identity and extend the STEM identity model. This developmental instrument was examined through expert review, small-scale pilot tests, student interviews, and large-scale field tests. The present study involved 2100 Chinese adolescents from middle and high schools in 10 regions. Factor analysis and Rasch analysis provided evidence of reliability and validity. The final instrument contained four dimensions: recognition, belonging, performance and competence, and interest. Our findings provide multiple sets of evidence for reliability and validity, supporting the appropriate structure of the instrument. It exhibits strong psychometric properties, which can be used to assess sustainability in students’ STEM fields.

With the increasing industrial relevance of new quantum technologies, a well-educated quantum workforce becomes increasingly crucial. The foreseeable lack of workforce raises important questions. What are the expectations regarding the future relevance of second-generation quantum technologies? What are the requirements for the workforce in the coming quantum industry? Which competences, knowledge, and skills should future employees have? In this paper, we report the results of our study that were aimed at mapping requirements and forecasts for the future quantum workforce. Our study consisted of three consecutive survey rounds. In total, we gathered 188 responses from industry and academic experts across Europe. Our study results served as an input for the development of the European Competence Framework for Quantum Technologies, delivered by the project QTEdu CSA for the European Quantum Flagship. In addition, we will discuss predictions from experts related to the future quantum workforce, including the expected industrial relevance of the main areas of quantum technologies, the need for educational efforts, and the expected influence of quantum technologies on everyday life.

Multicultural education invites teachers to support students in critiquing the foundations of a given discipline, with the aim of reimagining that discipline and the purposes it serves. In this paper, we present a series of cases in which high school physics teachers who are enrolled in a summer professional development course expressed vexation as they tried to integrate equity with the physics concept of energy and in which one teacher made significant progress in this integration. These cases serve to illustrate what teacher learning about multicultural education might look like in physics and what resources may support this learning. These cases also point us to some of the ways in which physics as a discipline and schooling as a system make it difficult for teachers to critically examine the canon.

This study examines high school preparation measures [ACT/SAT scores, high school grade point average (HSGPA), and conceptual physics pretest scores], in-class behavior measures (homework submission rates and lecture attendance rates), and in-class achievement measures (homework and test averages) for the last two fully face-to-face prepandemic and the first two fully face-to-face postpandemic semesters of an introductory calculus-based electricity and magnetism class. This class was offered at a large eastern land grant university in the United States. The total number of students for the four semesters was 1033. While some significant differences were measured (higher postpandemic HSGPA, lower postpandemic conceptual pretest scores, higher postpandemic homework average (fall semesters only), and lower postpandemic lecture attendance (spring semesters only), none were larger than a small effect. As such, student achievement, attendance rates, and assignment completion rates were largely unchanged after the pandemic.

In the summer of 2020, as COVID-19 limited in-person research opportunities and created additional barriers for many students, institutions either canceled or remotely hosted their research experience for undergraduates (REU) programs. The present qualitative phenomenographic study was designed to explore some of the possible limitations, challenges, and outcomes of this remote experience. Overall, 94 interviews were conducted with paired participants; mentees ($N=10$) and mentors ($N=8$) from six different REU programs. By drawing on cultural-historical activity theory as a framework, our study uncovers some of the challenges mentees faced while pursuing their research objectives and academic goals. These challenges included motivation, limited access to technology at home, limited communication among REU students, barriers in mentor-mentee relationships, and differing expectations about doing research. Despite the challenges, all mentees reported that this experience was highly beneficial. Comparisons between the outcomes of these remote REUs and published outcomes of in-person undergraduate research programs reveal many similar benefits, including student integration into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics culture. Our study suggests that remote research programs could be considered a means to expand access to undergraduate research experiences even after COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.

Rubric-based admissions are claimed to help make the graduate admissions process more equitable, possibly helping to address the historical and ongoing inequities in the U.S. physics graduate school admissions process that have often excluded applicants from minoritized races, ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. Yet, no studies have examined whether rubric-based admissions methods represent a fundamental change in the admissions process or simply represent a new tool that achieves the same outcome. To address that, we developed supervised machine learning models of graduate admissions data collected from our department over a seven-year period. During the first four years, our department used a traditional admission process and switched to a rubric-based process for the following three years, allowing us to compare which parts of the applications were driving admissions decisions. We find that faculty focused on applicants’ physics GRE scores and grade-point averages when making admissions decisions before the implementation of the rubric. While we were able to develop a sufficiently good model whose results we could trust for the data before the implementation of the rubric, we were unable to do so for the data collected after the implementation of the rubric, despite multiple modifications to the algorithms and data such as implementing Tomek Links. Our inability to model the second dataset despite being able to model the first combined with model comparison analyses suggests that rubric-based admission does change the underlying process. These results suggest that rubric-based holistic review is a method that could make the graduate admission process in physics more equitable.

Kinetic energy is usually the entry point for the study of energy in physics and is often perceived as unproblematic. We present evidence, however, that some learners who seem to have accepted the concept, from elementary school students to college physics majors and in-service teachers, nevertheless do not consistently attribute kinetic energy to moving objects that are being pushed or carried by other objects. Factors that seem to contribute to this idea include that the passive object is not moving “on its own”; the lack of attributes, like wheels, that suggest the ability to move on its own; and the perception that it would stop immediately if the driving object were to stop or disappear. We interpret these observations in terms of a model of a conceptual change via assimilation rather than accommodation and suggest some possible instructional implications.