Building More Inclusive Educational Environments in Physics
Building more inclusive educational environments in physics: understanding and addressing social-psychological factors to support learning with Noah Finkelstein *98.
While physics education research efforts have made great strides in developing programs and activities that enhance students’ mastery of physics concepts and practices, we are now beginning to attend more systematically to the study and development of identities and inclusion in physics. In studies designed to document and address the dramatic differences in participation and performance of women in college physics, we document a variety of gender gaps: participation, performance and expectations of learning. In studies of participation, we find sense belonging to play an essential role for women in our early undergraduate courses; in performance measures, we find social-psychological factors to differentially impact outcomes for men and women. We present studies of interventions that address both participation and performance, and recommendations for more inclusive educational practices. Time permitting, we will examine models for systemic change to create more inclusive environments.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Grants #0910373,1251590, 1524832,1548924, 1725959 and the Association of American Universities. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or AAU.
Noah Finkelstein *98 is a Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and conducts research is in physics education, specifically studying the conditions that support students’ interests and abilities in physics – developing models of context. In parallel, he conducts research on how educational transformations get taken up, spread, and sustained. He is a PI in the Physics Education Research (PER) group and a co-director of CU’s Center for STEM Learning. He co-directs the national Network of STEM Education Centers, is building the STEM DBER-Alliance, and coalitions advancing undergraduate education transformation. He is involved in education policy serving on many national boards, is a Trustee of the Higher Learning Commission, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Presidential Teaching Scholar and the inaugural Timmerhaus Teaching Ambassador for the University of Colorado system.
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