Research has linked a student's affect to her epistemology (Boaler & Greeno, 2000), but those constructs often apply broadly to a discipline and/or classroom culture. Independently, an emerging line of research shows that a student in a given classroom and discipline can shift between multiple locally coherent epistemological stances (Hammer, Elby, Scherr, & Redish, 2005). Our case study of Judy, an undergraduate engineering major, begins our long-term effort at uniting these two bodies of literature.
Many studies have investigated students' epistemological framing when solving physics problems. Framing supports students' problem solving as they decide what knowledge to employ and the necessary steps to solve the problem. Students may frame the same problem differently and take alternate paths to a correct solution. When students work in group settings, they share and discuss their framing to decide how to proceed in problem solving as a whole group. In this study, we investigate how groups of students negotiate their framing and frame shifts in group problem solving.
Beyond deficit-based models of learners' cognition: Interpreting engineering students' difficulties with sense-making in terms of fine-grained epistemological and conceptual dynamics
The ability to flexibly transform between different representations (e.g., from mathematical to graphical representations) of the same concept is a hallmark of expertise. Prior research suggests that many introductory physics students show lack of representational consistency, e.g., they may construct two representations of the same concept in the same situation that are inconsistent with one another. In this case study, we asked students to construct two representations for the electric field for a situation involving Gauss's law with spherical symmetry (charge conducting sphere surrounded by…
Perspectives in Quantum Physics: Epistemological, Ontological and Pedagogical. An investigation into student and expert perspectives on the physical interpretation of quantum mechanics, with implications for modern physics instruction
We report on the evolution of the largest physics course at the Technical University Berlin during the COVID-19 pandemic, which boosted the development of online learning content, electronic assessments, and, not at least, the reconceptualization of our teaching methods. By shifting to distance education, we created features that can be easily implemented and combined with any physics-type course at a university level. Thereby, we incidentally made introductory physics sustainably accessible to students having difficulties visiting the university. Besides our experiences gained on blended lear…
Preparing students for the quantum information revolution: Interdisciplinary teaching, curriculum development, and advising in quantum information science and engineering
Computation is intertwined with essentially all aspects of physics research and is invaluable for physicists' careers. Despite its disciplinary importance, integration of computation into physics education remains a challenge and, moreover, has tended to be constructed narrowly as a route to solving physics problems. Here, we broaden Physics Education Research's conception of computation by constructing an epistemic \emph{metamodel} -- a model of modeling -- incorporating insights on computational modeling from the philosophy of science and prior work. The metamodel is formulated in terms of p…
Improving Undergraduate Astronomy Students' Skills with Research Literature via Accessible Summaries: An Exploratory Case Study with Astrobites-based Reading Assignments