Collaborative Research: Surveying the state and implications of computational physics in courses for physics majors

这一综合性的合作研究项目，导致了调查工具的设计和验证，将阐明在本科物理课程中使用计算的程度、特点和态度。本科物理课程计算部分的知识库对于本科物理专业的教育研究、规划开发和有效就业具有重要意义。这项调查将是第一次对计算在本科物理课程中的地位进行全面和严格统计的全国性评估。该项目将在两年内进行，涉及各种利益攸关方。将召开一次讲习班，这对调查问卷的有效性及其结果的有用性至关重要，以便在设计调查之前完成探讨利益攸关方的想法和经验的进程。研讨会参与者将代表几个利益集团：来自不同教育机构类型和招生概况的教职员工和管理人员；雇用物理学学士学位获得者的企业、政府机构和组织的代表；计算物理教育研究专家；以及从当前物理专业队列中抽取的学生。参与者将设定设计计算方法的调查及其在本科物理课程中的使用的要求，并通过对调查结果的分析阐明预期的结果。与计算有关的态度和实践将被调查。一名在形成性和终结性评估方面有专长并在评估本科物理课程变化方面有丰富经验的外部评估员将使用混合方法将研讨会上讨论的问题和语言转化为调查和问卷，以衡量物理课程中当前的计算实践以及教授这些课程的物理系的变化环境。国际和平研究所和评估员将进行磋商，以深入了解讲习班的设计和运作如何成功地获得编制调查所需的知识，以及如何改进这种咨询讲习班。结果将增加在物理教育中复制科学和工程世界几十年来一直在做的事情所需的知识库-逐步将计算建模集成到专业实践的标准工具箱中。

This comprehensive, collaborative research project, leading to the design and validation of a survey instrument will elucidate the extent, character, and attitudes towards the use of computation in undergraduate physics courses. A knowledge base of the computational component of undergraduate physics courses is useful for educational research, programmatic development, and effective employment of undergraduate physics majors. The survey will be the first comprehensive and rigorously statistical national assessment of the position of computation in undergraduate physics courses. The project will be conducted over a period of two years involving a variety of stakeholders. A Workshop, crucial to the validity of the survey questionnaire and the usefulness of its results, will be convened to complete the process of probing the thinking and experiences of stakeholders in advance of designing the survey. Workshop participants will represent several interest groups: faculty and administrators from different educational institution types and enrollment profiles; representatives of businesses, government agencies, and organizations that employ physics bachelor degree recipients; a specialist in computational physics education research; and students drawn from the current cohort of physics majors. Participants will set requirements for the design of a survey of computational methods and their use in undergraduate physics courses, and articulate the desired outcomes from analysis of the results of the survey. Attitudes as well as practices in relation to computation will be surveyed. An external evaluator, with expertise in formative and summative evaluation, and significant experience in assessing changes in the undergraduate physics curriculum will use mixed methods to translate the issues and language treated in the workshop into a survey and questionnaire that measures current computational practices in physics courses and the climate for change in the physics departments that teach them. The PI and the evaluator will consult to gain insights in learning to understand how the design and operation of the Workshop succeeded in eliciting the knowledge needed for constructing the survey and how such advisory workshops can be improved. Results will increase the knowledge base needed to replicate in physics education what the scientific and engineering worlds have been doing for decades-gradually integrating computational modeling into the standard toolbox for professional practice.