Studying Equity in Undergraduate Physics Labs

在NSF改善本科生STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源(IUSE：EHR)的支持下，该项目旨在通过研究实验室课堂上的小组互动公平如何影响学生坚持物理的决定来服务于国家利益。尽管在改善科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教育方面做出了广泛的努力，但许多在大学早期就宣布主修STEM的学生并没有坚持到毕业。尽管影响学生坚持不懈的诸多变量错综复杂，但一个重要的观察是，学生不会仅仅因为成绩不佳而离开STEM。这项研究是在参与式学生学习路径的探索和设计阶段进行的，将评估实验室体验如何影响学生对做物理意味着什么的看法，以及他们是否会继续这样做。这项工作将集中在实验室课程上，在这些课程中，学生们一起进行实验，需要小组成员之间协调决策。该项目将通过在实验室对学生进行有组织的观察，并结合对他们经历的采访来收集有关学生经历的数据。通过将直接观察与访谈联系起来，这个项目提供了一个难得的机会，将坚持不懈与实际的课堂活动联系起来。这项工作的意义在于，观察到群体互动中的不平等可能会对某些学生群体，如女性和少数族裔学生的持久性产生更多负面影响。这项研究旨在回答两个研究问题：1)公平的实验小组和实验活动的特征是什么？2)学生的实验经历(公平与否)如何影响他们对物理意味着什么的看法，以及他们是否会坚持物理学习？学生在小组工作中的经验将通过观察谈话时间和话轮转换、争取纳入和排除、承担领导角色、设备操作和想法所有权来评估。有针对性的采访和调查将调查学生对做物理意味着什么，谁可以做，以及他们是否计划继续做这项工作的看法，同时也会联系他们在实验室的小组工作经验。一个重要的重点将是评估持久性的常见预测因素(学生的自我效能感、归属感、科学认同感和代理感)与他们在实验室的经验之间的相互作用。这项工作的目标是为实验室教学如何影响学生在STEM中的坚持性产生一系列影响，并为改进物理实验室提出建议。它的研究方法将使研究人员能够探索实验室经验如何影响不同的学生群体，包括历史上在物理学中代表性不足的群体。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by studying how fairness in group interactions during laboratory classes affects students' decisions to persist in physics. Despite extensive efforts to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, many students who declare a STEM major early in their college years do not persist to graduation. Although the many variables that affect student persistence are complex and intertwined, an important observation is that students do not leave STEM simply due to poor grades. This study, in the Exploration and Design tier of the Engaged Student Learning track, will evaluate how lab experiences affect student perspectives of what it means to do physics and whether they will continue to do it. The work will focus on lab courses where students conduct experiments together, requiring coordinated decision-making between the group members. The project will gather data about student experiences though structured observations of students in labs, paired with interviews of their experiences. By linking direct observations with interviews, this project provides a rare opportunity to connect persistence to actual in-class activities. The significance of this work is increased by the observation that inequities in group interactions may more negatively impact the persistence of some groups of students, such as women and minority students. The proposed study aims to answer two research questions: 1) What are the characteristics of equitable lab groups and lab activities? 2) How do students' lab experiences (equitable or not) affect their perspectives of what it means to do physics and whether they will persist in physics studies? Students' experiences in group work will be evaluated through observations of talk time and turn taking, bids for inclusion and exclusion, assuming leadership roles, equipment handling, and ownership of ideas. Targeted interviews and surveys will probe students' views about what it means to do physics, who can do it, and whether they plan to continue to do it, while also drawing connections to their group work experiences in the lab. A significant focus will be on evaluating interactions between common predictors of persistence (students' self-efficacy, sense of belonging, science identity, and sense of agency) and their experiences in lab. The goal of this work is to generate a set of implications for how lab instruction can affect student persistence in STEM and recommendations for improvements to physics labs. Its research methodology will enable the investigators to probe how lab experiences affect different groups of students, including groups that have been historically underrepresented in physics. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.