Adapting to a Changing World Challenges and Opportunities in Undergraduate Physics Education (2013) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Current Status of Undergraduate Physics Education
2 The Current Status of Undergraduate Physics Education
Pages 23-57
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Internal factors associated with curriculum, instructional practices, and diversity also help define the challenges the physics community faces in trying to achieve widespread and sustained improvement in undergraduate physics education. This chapter surveys the landscape, identifying areas of concern, sources for optimism, and strategies worth supporting.
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THE STUDENTS Undergraduate Education in General Many of the changes taking place in undergraduate physics classrooms reflect more general transformations happening across higher education. The d emographics of those enrolled in undergraduate institutions are shifting.
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As these numbers increase, the availability of highly qualified high school teachers becomes critical. Undergraduate Physics Education In any given academic year, about 500,000 students take an introductory under graduate physics course somewhere in the United States.
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This chapter later discusses a few innovative efforts that attempt to differentiate introductory courses -- tailoring them to suit the needs of different groups of stu dents, while preserving, or even increasing, the emphasis on the fundamental ways of reasoning about the world that characterize physics. Segments of the Physics Student Population Different subpopulations of physics students present different challenges for developing an effective strategy for improving undergraduate physics education.
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. The diversity of goals for students in introductory courses extends to physics majors as well.
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However, for those physics majors who will be responsible for teaching physics to future generations, the undergraduate courses they take should serve as models for how the subject should be taught. Later in this chapter, some strategies for taking these factors into account are mentioned.
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There is gender parity during the first high school physics course: female students are just as likely to take and successfully complete a high school physics course as their male counterparts. But a disproportionately small percentage elects to take the most challenging subsequent high school physics courses that prepare them for physics in college (White and Tesfaye, 2011a)
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30 Adapting to a Changing World 70% 60% 50% Chemistry Women 40% Math Women 30% Biology Women Physics Women 20% 10% 0% 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 9% 8% 7% 6% Physics Black Physics Hispanic 5% Biology Black 4% Biology Hispanic Chemistry Black 3% Chemistry Hispanic 2% 1% 0% 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 FIGURE 2.3 The percentage of the bachelor's degrees granted to women from 2001 to 2009 (top)
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Nearly half of the African American college students and more than half of the Hispanic and Native American college students start at a community college (White, 2012)
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findings. Tesfaye, High School Physics Courses and Enrollments -- Results from the from NCES Source: 1987 – current, AIP; data prior to 1987 2008-09 Nationwide Survey of High School Physics Teachers, Focus On, August 2010, American Institute of Physics Statistical http://www.aip.org/statistics Research Center, Figure 1, available at http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/highschool3.pdf, accessed on June 19, 2012.
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For instance, a 1991 paper, "The Undergraduate Physics Major" ( braham et al., 1991) , cited a shortage of high school physics teachers and the A underrepresentation of women and minority students among their concerns.
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for some does not necessarily work for everyone. As part of this study, committee members examined the extensive research literature concerning undergraduate physics teaching, looking for robust findings that have been replicated at different institutions and that have "stood the test of time." Given the complexity of the learning process and the large number of vari ables involved in any classroom, few studies are definitive in isolation.
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A study that was published in the 1990s pulled together results from a wide variety of courses and institutions. Although many other studies have followed, Hake's seminal report on the effectiveness of interac tive engagement methods remains an important contribution to undergraduate physics education (Hake, 1998)
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Hake, Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses, American Journal of Physics 66(1) :64-74, 1998, Figure 1, Copyright 1998, American Association of Physics Teachers.
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The results of studies such as those mentioned here have spurred changes in instruction at many institutions, especially in introductory physics courses. In upper-level courses, change has been much more limited.
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Laboratory experiments in physics courses serve many purposes, one of which is developing conceptual under standing. For this purpose, computers equipped with data acquisition devices and analysis software offer an advantage over more traditional techniques (e.g., using meter sticks, timers, and so on)
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Because many introductory physics courses have a lecture-laboratory-recitation structure, the introduction of tutorials in place of some or all recitations often requires little or no additional investment of faculty or teaching assistant (TA) time.
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Below, two related studies are cited that examine thriving physics programs, and some examples of changes that have been undertaken are provided. To understand the characteristics of departments that excel in attracting majors and preparing a broad spectrum of students for both further study and 4 Based on personal correspondence with representatives of the publisher of MasteringPhysics, Pearson, and Web Assign.
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the workforce, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physi cal Society, and the American Institute of Physics sponsored the National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics. The task force visited 21 thriving departments and learned that "in all cases, the department as a whole took responsibility for the undergraduate program.
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Howes, and K Krane, eds., Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics: Project Report, American Association of Physics Teachers, College Park, Md., 2003, available at http://www.aapt.org/Programs/projects/ntfup.cfm.
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The National Research Council report Bio 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists (2003) acknowledges the increasingly quantitative and inter isciplinary d nature of the life sciences and calls for changes in the physics courses offered for future biologists.
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Recruiting and Retaining Students from Traditionally Underrepresented Groups While interactive teaching methods improve student performance in general, other aspects of the goals and culture of physics education also warrant consid eration (Hazari et al., 2010; Mann, 1994; May and Chubin, 2003)
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, together with its implementation of the Learning Assistant model, includes careful crafting of the learning environment designed to improve self-efficacy (Bandura, 1986) and to reduce stereotype threat (Beilock and Ramirez, 2011)
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Preparing Future Teachers As noted in the section "The Students," the physics community is not produc ing enough highly qualified physics teachers to meet the growing need at the high school level. The report of the National Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics (2013; see Box 2.3)
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The task force recommendations are organized in terms of various stakeholders' commitment to physics teacher preparation and to the quality education opportunities for future physics teachers. Commitment Physics and education departments, university administrators, professional societies, and funding agencies must make a strong commitment to discipline-specific teacher education and support.
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Since 2001, it has provided direct funding and other resources to more than 25 physics departments that have launched physics teacher preparation programs. It has also enlisted more than 250 institutions "dedicated to improving and promoting physics and physical science teacher education." The program acknowledges that ensuring that students who choose to pursue K-12 teaching as a career are well prepared will not have enough of an impact if the number of these teachers remains at current levels.
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The Colorado Learning Assistant model is an example. Physics faculty transform their courses to be more aligned with educational research through the help of under graduate learning assistants, some of whom choose to become physics teachers.
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. The reward structure that prevails in many colleges and uni versities does not adequately recognize the professional effort and creativity that is part of improving student learning.
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Paralleling somewhat the NFWs for universities and 4-year colleges, the New Faculty Teaching Experience provides an 18-month training period for new faculty at TYCs to learn about alternative teaching strate gies, laboratory activities, and assessments of course goals and student outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Undergraduate physics education is under a variety of stresses that cannot be ignored.
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This would not be of concern except that introductory courses presumably play a major role in these students' decisions, and if introductory courses do not accurately reflect the discipline, then students may not be making informed choices. If introductory physics courses were a valid reflection of the discipline, one could argue that physics is of innate interest to very few.
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The studies cited here indicate that it is essential that the undergraduate experience of future teachers reflect what is known from research on learning and teaching in general and on effective teacher education in particular. Changing high school physics requires transforming introductory undergraduate physics courses and creating mechanisms to ensure that future teachers are well prepared in both physics and physics-specific pedagogy.
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In Reviews in Physics Education Research, Volume 1: Research-based Reform of University Physics. American Association of Physics Teachers, Washington, D.C.
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2009. Preparing high-school physics teachers.
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2010. A physics department's role in preparing physics teachers: The Colorado Learning Assistant Model.
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2010. High School Physics Courses and Enrollments -- Results from the 2008-09 Nation ide Survey of High School Physics Teachers.
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