Forging identity and community in physics: Evaluation and dissemination of Compass

马里兰州和伯克利大学的研究人员正在研究指南针计划的实施情况，以确定它在多大程度上以及如何增加物理专业的保留，特别是女性和代表性不足的学生。指南针包括为期两周的夏季体验，后续秋季和春季课程，讲座系列和导师计划，所有这些都专注于建立社区，激发学生对物理的兴趣，并培养学生的学科身份和思维方式，部分是通过让他们参与研究。该项目需要定量研究，重点是物理学的保留，特别是着眼于妇女和代表性不足的少数民族学生，和定性研究调查的想法，指南针的工作原理是帮助学生伪造一个身份，作为一个物理社区的成员，由社会和知识规范定义。指南针最初是由伯克利研究生开发，并获得了美国物理学会2012年提高本科教育奖。本研究探讨了物理教育中最紧迫的问题之一，即令人不安的和持续的少数妇女和少数民族的代表性不足的物理专业。这项研究有可能不仅揭示这些计划是否增加了所有群体和代表性不足的群体的保留，而且还通过分析课堂视频和临床访谈了解它们是如何工作的。它不仅评估了一个有前途的模型的有效性，以保留代表性不足的学生在物理学，可能适用于其他STEM学科，但也传播策略，其中一个参与者/领导者在一个机构的程序有助于开发或维持类似的程序作为研究生或教师在另一所大学。由于物理系通常在经济上支持他们的第一和第二年的研究生，无论如何，利用这些学生的经验和专业知识，资助一个或多个研究生领导罗盘式的项目可能是一个强大的传播方式。

Researchers at the University of Maryland and Berkeley are studying the implementation of the Compass program to determine to what extent and how it increases retention of physics majors, especially women and under-represented students. Compass includes a two-week summer experience, follow-up fall and spring courses, a lecture series and a mentorship program all focused on building community, stoking students' interest in physics, and developing students' disciplinary identities and ways of thinking, partly by involving them in research. The project entails quantitative research focusing on retention in physics, especially looking at women and underrepresented minority students, and qualitative research investigating the idea that Compass works by helping students forge an identity as a member of a physics community, defined by both social and intellectual norms.Compass was originally developed by Berkeley graduate students, and won the American Physical Society's 2012 Award for Improving Undergraduate Education. This research probes a possible solution to one of the most pressing problems in physics education, that of disturbingly and persistently small numbers of women and underrepresented minorities among physics majors. The research has the potential to shed light not only about whether these programs increase retention for all groups and for underrepresented groups, but also about how they work (or not), via analysis of classroom video and clinical interviews. It evaluates not only the effectiveness of a promising model for retaining underrepresented students in physics, possibly applicable to other STEM disciplines, but also a dissemination strategy wherein a participant/leader in a program at one institution helps to develop or sustain a similar program as a graduate student or faculty member at another university. Since physics departments often financially support their 1st- and 2nd-year graduatestudents anyway, leveraging those students' experiences and expertise by funding oneor more graduate students to lead Compass-like programs may be a powerful way todisseminate.