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Articles 1 - 18 of 18
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Relative Impacts Of Different Grade Scales On Student Success In Introductory Physics, David J. Webb, Cassandra A. Paul, Mary A. Chessey
Relative Impacts Of Different Grade Scales On Student Success In Introductory Physics, David J. Webb, Cassandra A. Paul, Mary A. Chessey
Faculty Publications
In deciding on a student’s grade in a class, an instructor generally needs to combine many individual grading judgments into one overall judgment. Two relatively common numerical scales used to specify individual grades are the 4-point scale (where each whole number 0–4 corresponds to a letter grade) and the percent scale (where letter grades A through D are uniformly distributed in the top 40% of the scale). This paper uses grading data from a single series of courses offered over a period of 10 years to show that the grade distributions emerging from these two grade scales differed in many …
Applied Computing For Behavioral And Social Sciences (Acbss) Minor, Farshid Marbouti, Valerie Carr, Belle Wei, Morris Jones, Amy Strage
Applied Computing For Behavioral And Social Sciences (Acbss) Minor, Farshid Marbouti, Valerie Carr, Belle Wei, Morris Jones, Amy Strage
Faculty Publications
The growing digital economy creates unprecedented demand for technical workers, especially those with both domain knowledge and technical skills. To meet this need, an ACBSS (Applied Computing for Behavioral and Social Sciences) minor degree has been developed by an interdisciplinary team of faculty at San José State University (SJSU). The minor degree comprises four courses: Python programming, algorithms and data structures, R programming, and culminating projects. The first ACBSS cohort started in Fall 2016 with 32 students, and the second cohort in Fall 2017 reached its capacity of 40 students, 62% of whom are female and 35% are underrepresented minority …
Using The Real-Time Instructor Observing Tool (Riot) For Reflection On Teaching Practice, Cassandra Paul, Emily West
Using The Real-Time Instructor Observing Tool (Riot) For Reflection On Teaching Practice, Cassandra Paul, Emily West
Faculty Publications
As physics educators, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our practice. There are many different kinds of professional development opportunities that have been shown to help us with this endeavor. We can seek assistance from professionals, like mentor teachers or centers for faculty development, we can attend workshops to learn new curricula or pedagogical skills, and we can engage in learning communities to develop shared visions and become more reflective educators.1However, when these activities end, what can we do on our own to continue to improve? How can we track our improvement? And perhaps even most …
Does The Test Work? Evaluating A Web-Based Language Placement Test, Avizia Long, Sun-Young Shin, Kimberly Geeslin, Erik Willis
Does The Test Work? Evaluating A Web-Based Language Placement Test, Avizia Long, Sun-Young Shin, Kimberly Geeslin, Erik Willis
Faculty Publications
In response to the need for examples of test validation from which everyday language programs can benefit, this paper reports on a study that used Bachman’s (2005) assessment use argument (AUA) framework to examine evidence to support claims made about the intended interpretations and uses of scores based on a new web-based Spanish language placement test. The test, which consisted of 100 items distributed across five item types (sound discrimination, grammar, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and vocabulary), was tested with 2,201 incoming first-year and transfer students at a large, Midwestern public university. Analyses of internal consistency and validity revealed the …
Equity Of Success In Clasp Courses At Uc Davis, Cassandra Paul, David Webb, Mary Chessey, Wendell Potter
Equity Of Success In Clasp Courses At Uc Davis, Cassandra Paul, David Webb, Mary Chessey, Wendell Potter
Faculty Publications
We have recently described the reformed introductory physics course, Collaborative Learning through Active Sense-Making in Physics (CLASP), for bioscience students at UC Davis and argued that the course was more successful than its predecessor (Physics 5) by several measures. Now we examine the effects of these courses for different student ethnic groups. We find that, compared to Physics 5, students of most ethnic backgrounds were more successful in CLASP. We also find that students from ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM who took the CLASP course were more likely to graduate as STEM majors. We discuss possible features of CLASP that …
Why Teach Science? Helping Teacher Candidates Frame Instructional Decision Making From Moral And Ethical Perspectives, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin
Why Teach Science? Helping Teacher Candidates Frame Instructional Decision Making From Moral And Ethical Perspectives, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin
Faculty Publications
This qualitative research project’s overarching goal was to explore ways to help primary grade teacher candidates (re)kindle a conception of teaching as a moral enterprise involving ethical choices and enactment of one’s values. In the context of a science methods course, we explored the research question: What happens to the commitments toward science instruction of pre-service elementary teachers when we help them view science instruction as an act of caring? Our findings suggest that for many, this approach helped students take a moral stance, articulate an ethical position regarding educational issues, and use these perspectives to inform decision-making at the …
Teaching In The Age Of Humans Helping Students Think About Climate Change., Grinell Smith
Teaching In The Age Of Humans Helping Students Think About Climate Change., Grinell Smith
Faculty Publications
To convey the magnitude and rapidity of current climate change and the severity of predictions for the next century, I present essential climate science information using four key sets of data and contextualize that information with personal anecdotes. I then consider the reasons for the large gap between the scientific consensus about anthropogenic climate change and public perceptions of that consensus. With several known challenges to climate change education in mind, I offer four recommendations for teachers that map relevant social psychology to pedagogy: (1) establish a learning community that works to disrupt in-group favoritism and reduce attribution bias; (2) …
Connecting Self-Efficacy And Views About Nature Of Science In Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Andrew Elby
Connecting Self-Efficacy And Views About Nature Of Science In Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Andrew Elby
Faculty Publications
Undergraduate research can support students’ more central participation in physics. We analyze markers of two coupled shifts in participation: changes in students’ views about the nature of science coupled to shifts in self-efficacy toward physics research. Students in the study worked with faculty and graduate student mentors on research projects while also participating in a seminar where they learned about research and reflected on their experiences. In classroom discussions and in clinical interviews, students described gaining more nuanced views about the nature of science, specifically related to who can participate in research and what participation in research looks like. This …
Attending To Scientific Practices Within Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Chandra Turpen, Andrew Elby
Attending To Scientific Practices Within Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Chandra Turpen, Andrew Elby
Faculty Publications
Ford (2015) argues for viewing "scientific practice" not as a list of particular skills, but rather, as "sets of regularities of behaviors and social interactions" among scientists. This conceptualization of scientific practices foregrounds how they 1) meaningfully connect to one another, 2) are purposefully employed in their ability to explain nature and 3) prospectively adapt based on critique. While Ford focused on practices in K-12 classrooms, we apply this framework to understand how undergraduate physics majors do or do not make progress toward more central participation in physics research experiences. Using video from interviews with students and research mentors, and …
Energy Tracking Diagrams, Rachel Scherr, Benedikt Harrer, Hunter Close, Abigail Daane, Lezlie Dewater, Amy Robertson, Lane Seeley, Stamatis Vokos
Energy Tracking Diagrams, Rachel Scherr, Benedikt Harrer, Hunter Close, Abigail Daane, Lezlie Dewater, Amy Robertson, Lane Seeley, Stamatis Vokos
Faculty Publications
Energy is a crosscutting concept in science and features prominently in national science education documents. In the Next Generation Science Standards, the primary conceptual learning goal is for learners to conserve energy as they track the transfers and transformations of energy within, into, or out of the system of interest in complex physical processes. As part of tracking energy transfers among objects, learners should (i) distinguish energy from matter, including recognizing that energy flow does not uniformly align with the movement of matter, and should (ii) identify specific mechanisms by which energy is transferred among objects, such as mechanical work …
The Real-Time Instructor Observing Tool For Future Teachers, Cassandra Paul
The Real-Time Instructor Observing Tool For Future Teachers, Cassandra Paul
Faculty Publications
Current educational research shows that students achieve higher learning gains in science classrooms when interactive techniques are used. As a result, we are seeing more high schools and institutions of higher education adopt interactive courses. Unfortunately, it's difficult for future teachers to envision interactive science courses because their experience as students has been dominated by traditional lecture. New educators need to know what interactive science classrooms look like, so that they can model this experience in their own classrooms. The Real-time Instructor Observing Tool (RIOT), a computer application that allows an observer to quickly categorize classroom interactions, can help with …
Grading By Response Category: A Simple Method For Providing Students With Meaningful Feedback On Exams In Large Courses, Cassandra Paul, Wendell Potter, Brenda Weiss
Grading By Response Category: A Simple Method For Providing Students With Meaningful Feedback On Exams In Large Courses, Cassandra Paul, Wendell Potter, Brenda Weiss
Faculty Publications
As instructors, we want our students to develop a deep understanding of course material, and feedback is essential in their sense-making process. Providing effective individualized feedback to students in large courses is especially difficult. While researcherssuggest,1 and many instructors of large courses are,2,3incorporating interactive techniques that allow peer feedback, studies have shown that it's important for students to also have direct feedback from the instructor.4 Since the requirement for individualized feedback is difficult to meet during class time in large courses, providing effective feedback on exams and quizzes takes on added importance. Some instructors choose to …
Variation Of Instructor-Student Interactions In An Introductory Interactive Physics Course, Emily West, Cassandra Paul, David Webb, Wendell Potter
Variation Of Instructor-Student Interactions In An Introductory Interactive Physics Course, Emily West, Cassandra Paul, David Webb, Wendell Potter
Faculty Publications
The physics instruction at UC Davis for life science majors takes place in a long-standing reformed large-enrollment physics course in which the discussion or laboratory instructors (primarily graduate student teaching assistants) implement the interactive-engagement (IE) elements of the course. Because so many different instructors participate in disseminating the IE course elements, we find it essential to the instructors’ professional development to observe and document the student-instructor interactions within the classroom. Out of this effort, we have developed a computerized real-time instructor observation tool (RIOT) to take data of student-instructor interactions. We use the RIOT to observe 29 different instructors for …
Students Talk About Energy In Project- Based Inquiry Science, Benedikt W. Harrer, Virginia J. Flood, Michael C. Wittmann
Students Talk About Energy In Project- Based Inquiry Science, Benedikt W. Harrer, Virginia J. Flood, Michael C. Wittmann
Faculty Publications
We examine the types of emergent language eighth grade students in rural Maine middle schools use when they discuss energy in their first experiences with Project-Based Inquiry Science: Energy, a research-based curriculum that uses a specific language for talking about energy. By comparative analysis of the language used by the curriculum materials to students’ language, we find that students’ talk is at times more aligned with a Stores and Transfer model of energy than the Forms model supported by the curriculum.
Productive Resources In Students’ Ideas About Energy: An Alternative Analysis Of Watts’ Original Interview Transcripts, Benedikt W. Harrer, Virginia J. Flood, Michael C. Wittmann
Productive Resources In Students’ Ideas About Energy: An Alternative Analysis Of Watts’ Original Interview Transcripts, Benedikt W. Harrer, Virginia J. Flood, Michael C. Wittmann
Faculty Publications
For over 30 years, researchers have investigated students’ ideas about energy with the intent of reforming instructional practice. In this pursuit, Watts contributed an influential study with his 1983 paper “Some alternative views of energy” [Phys. Educ. 18, 213 (1983)]. Watts’ “alternative frameworks” continue to be used for categorizing students’ non-normative ideas about energy. Using a resources framework, we propose an alternate analysis of student responses from Watts’ interviews. In our analysis, we show how students’ activated resources about energy are disciplinarily productive. We suggest that fostering seeds of scientific understandings in students’ ideas about energy may play an important …
Student-Teacher Interactions For Bringing Out Student Ideas About Energy, Benedikt W. Harrer, Michael Wittmann, Rachel Scherr
Student-Teacher Interactions For Bringing Out Student Ideas About Energy, Benedikt W. Harrer, Michael Wittmann, Rachel Scherr
Faculty Publications
Modern middle school science curricula use group activities to help students express their thinking and enable them to work together like scientists. We are studying rural 8th grade science classrooms using materials on energy. Even after spending several months with the same curriculum on other physics topics, students' engagement in group activities seems to be restricted to creating lists of words that are associated with energy. Though research suggests that children have rich and potentially valuable ideas about energy, our students don't seem to spontaneously use and express their ideas in the classroom. Only within or after certain interactions with …
Elements Of Proximal Formative Assessment In Learners’ Discourse About Energy, Benedikt W. Harrer, Rachel E. Scherr, Michael C. Wittmann, Hunter G. Close, Brian W. Frank
Elements Of Proximal Formative Assessment In Learners’ Discourse About Energy, Benedikt W. Harrer, Rachel E. Scherr, Michael C. Wittmann, Hunter G. Close, Brian W. Frank
Faculty Publications
Proximal formative assessment, the just-in-time elicitation of students' ideas that informs ongoing instruction, is usually associated with the instructor in a formal classroom setting. However, the elicitation, assessment, and subsequent instruction that characterize proximal formative assessment are also seen in discourse among peers. We present a case in which secondary teachers in a professional development course at SPU are discussing energy flow in refrigerators. In this episode, a peer is invited to share her thinking (elicitation). Her idea that refrigerators move heat from a relatively cold compartment to a hotter environment is inappropriately judged as incorrect (assessment). The "instruction" (peer …
Making Connections Between Science And Equity: A Motivation To Teach Science In Elementary Grades, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin
Making Connections Between Science And Equity: A Motivation To Teach Science In Elementary Grades, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin
Faculty Publications
Teacher quality is among the strongest correlates of student outcomes. However, only about a quarter of the nation’s elementary teachers consider themselves qualified to teach science. In this descriptive and exploratory study, we investigated whether helping pre-service teacher candidates explore connections between science and issues of equity, particularly around sustainability issues, could help them see the importance of teaching science to their students more often. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 59 students enrolled in revised science methods courses at a large public university. Our findings suggest that positioning science instruction thusly was perceived as a strong motivator to …