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Integrating local culture in physics lessons may encourage the development of creative thinking and problem-solving skills. This research aims at examining the effectiveness of the implementation of the creative physics problem solving model based on the local culture of Yaaqowiyu (Cripics-Qu) to improve student's creative thinking and problem-solving skills. This research employed a quasi experimental non-equivalent control group design. The experimental class was given treatment using the Cripics-Qu model, while the control class utilized the conventional learning model. The research samples were 120 students of grade X. The sampling technique employed was a cluster sampling technique. The data were collected using tests instrument. The instrument validity was determined based on the Aiken index while instrument reliability was measured based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The data were analyzed by using manova and quantitative descriptive. The results of this research indicate that there is a significant difference on the average value of the creative thinking and problem-solving skills between the experimental class and the control class (sig = 0.00 ? [alpha]). The conclusion of this research shows that the use of the Cripics-Qu model in physics learning is very effective in improving students' creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

As humanity reaches the 5.0 industrial revolution, education plays a critical role in boosting the quality of human resources. This paper reports bibliometric research on emerging TiP during 1993-2022 in the educational field to analyse its development on any level of education during the last three decades. This study employed a Scopus database. The findings are that the trend of TiP publication in educational fields has tended to increase every year during the past three decades and conference paper became the most published document type, the USA is the country which produces the most publications; "Students" being the most occurrences keyword and total link strength. The publication of the TiP is ranked to the Quartile 1, which implies that a publication with the cited performance is a publication with credibility because the publisher has a good reputation. Researchers can find the topics most relevant to other metadata sources such as Web of Science, Publish, and Perish.

Low levels of critical thinking skills and learning motivation, particularly in physics learning, pose significant challenges that must be promptly addressed to ensure students' future success. To tackle this issue, the present study endeavors to develop a Cooperative Model, Digital Game, and Augmented Reality (CAP)-based learning, which is both valid and practical, to enhance these crucial aspects effectively. This study used Educational Design Research through a non-equivalent control group design in the data collection process. Using purposive sampling method, 54 high school students were divided into two classes were involved. The data collection period was from July to August 2022. The research instruments used include syllabus, lesson plan, Adventuring Physics media, critical thinking test instrument, motivation questionnaire, student response questionnaire, validation questionnaire, and observation sheet. Statistical tests used include descriptive, paired, and independent t-tests. The results reveal that the learning products and instruments exhibit strong validity and reliability, alongside a high degree of practicality in their implementation. The experimental group demonstrated a notable improvement both in critical thinking skills and learning motivation. Additionally, students' feedback regarding this learning approach has been overwhelmingly positive. Consequently, this research highlights the importance of fostering more engaging and enjoyable innovations through digital learning in physics education to achieve optimal learning outcomes and enhance 21st-century skills.

The physics' subject aims to provide the student with a broad understanding of the physical phenomena that occur around them every day and introduce them to the scientific search. The use of experiments in the teaching of the subject contributes to the understanding of these phenomena, the development of skills and critical thinking and has many benefits for the emotional, social and psychomotor fields of the students. In total, 178 primary school teachers who have taught physics from West Greece, were enrolled in our study. All participants completed a questionnaire electronically, based on teachers' attitudes towards physics teaching on specific factors. No differences were found between genders, teachers' attitudes towards the use of physics experiments are not affected by their years of service with minor exceptions, while teachers develop more positive attitudes towards experiments over the years of teaching physics. Moreover, teachers' field of study plays an important role on their attitudes towards experiments, there are no differences to the age group of teachers and their attitude towards the use of experiments in the teaching of physics with an exception. Though further research is needed, our questionnaire helps to identify factors that affect teachers' attitudes towards performing experiments in physics teaching.

The cognitive reflection test (CRT) assesses an individual's capacity to restrain impulsive and intuitive responses and to engage in critical reflection on mathematical problems. The literature indicates that several factors influence students' performance on CRT, including gender, age, and prior knowledge of mathematics. In this study, our objective was to investigate the correlation between CRT scores and students' achievements in both mathematics and physics. We conducted our research with a sample of 150 Italian high school students, and the findings revealed a positive predictive relationship between CRT scores and students' performance in both mathematics and physics. Furthermore, we employed an ordinal logistic regression to evaluate the impact of CRT scores, gender, and school level on students' achievements in mathematics and physics. The results showed that both CRT scores and school level had statistically significant effects on predicting these achievements. In contrast, gender emerged as a statistically significant factor only in predicting students' mathematics achievements.

This study aimed to determine and describe the influence of psycholinguistics and metacognition on the ability of physics education students to use verbal language in the learning process. Quantitative research is used to measure the level of influence between variables, and then the case study is used to determine the sample. Based on the data, it could be concluded that the ability of psycholinguistics had a positive correlation with language skills, with a correlation of 0.924 and a significance value (2-tailed) of 0.000 <0.05. Thus, it could be understood that there was a positive correlation between psycholinguistics toward language skills with a very strong correlation category. The correlation between metacognition and language skills was 0.874 with a significance value (2-tailed) of 0.000 < 0.05. Therefore, this article argues that the ability of psycholinguistics and metacognition, so the language skills of physics students in carrying out physics learning would be better. This meant that the two variables affected the verbal language skills in learning physics together and not separately. Because language skills are related to metacognitive abilities, including intellectual abilities, teachers need to consider the use of verbal language in the classroom for the cognitive development of students. To achieve this, a psycholinguistic skill development program was needed for physics education students and other prospective teacher students; they could use verbal language in both the declarative, imperative, and interrogative aspects appropriately and accurately.

Recent research has indicated that the utilization of digital technologies among Nepal's secondary school teachers is minimal. A multiple case study research design was employed to explore how Physics teachers at the secondary level utilized digital technologies for teaching Physics and the challenges they encountered in adopting new instructional tools. The study revealed that Physics teachers occasionally incorporated YouTube videos to aid in explaining complex concepts. However, the abundance of digital resources available for Physics classes remains significantly underutilized. Furthermore, students were not encouraged to engage in collaborative learning and communication platforms. Nepal's Physics teachers faced various challenges, such as time constraints, in utilizing digital technologies for teaching purposes. These findings highlight the need for greater support and resources to assist teachers in overcoming these challenges and effectively integrating digital technologies into the classroom. This research provides valuable insights into the level of integration of digital technology in the classrooms of teachers who have access to digital resources and possess the necessary skills to use them effectively.

The purpose of this study was to identify the the factors that influenced pre-service teachers' perceptions of their abilities to solve structured physics problems. 1185 pre-service teachers from different disciplines, enrolled in physics courses in one Turkish University from 2008 to 2017 participated in a descriptive survey. The factors influencing the pre-service r physics problem-solving abilities, ranking from most to least, were as follows: personal characteristics; quality of secondary or university physics teaching; secondary school physics education, and physics learning environment. The study implies the need for: (i) equal opportunities; (ii) knowledge integration; and (iii) learning affordances, which are relevant not only to Turkey but also to worldwide physics education.

This research probed the perceptions of secondary school science teachers concerning the objective and utility of assessment, exploring the influences of gender, teaching experience, and specific science subject components. A total of 100 secondary school teachers from Selangor participated in the study, completing the Teacher's Conception of Assessment (TCoA) online questionnaire. This instrument comprised 27 statements categorized into four key aspects: Improvement, Irrelevance, School Accountability, and Student Accountability. Interestingly, the data revealed that the highest mean score was attributed to the irrelevance of assessments (M=4.44; SD=0.86), followed by assessment for improvement (M=4.21; SD=0.95), student accountability (M=4.18; SD=1.32), and lastly, school accountability (M=4.15; SD=1.44). A closer examination of the data pointed towards significant gender-based differences in teachers' perceptions of institutional accountability and educational enhancement through assessments, with female and male teachers scoring higher in these respective areas. However, the length of teaching experience did not appear to significantly affect the teachers' perceptions across any of the assessed parameters. There were noteworthy differences in teachers' perceptions of student accountability in assessments when evaluated based on the subject taught, with Biology teachers reporting higher mean scores as compared to Chemistry and Physics teachers. Additionally, teachers' perceptions regarding the improvement role of assessments and their irrelevance differed significantly across subjects, with general science teachers attaining higher mean scores than Chemistry, Biology, and Physics teachers. The findings of this study shed light on teachers' understanding of assessment, particularly in the field of Science, and serve as a valuable resource for all educational stakeholders. By understanding teachers' perceptions, policymakers and school administrators can make informed decisions that would potentially enhance teaching and learning processes.

Through STEAM education, this action research aims to improve senior high school students' ability to think critically and learn effectively. The target group for this study consisted of 36 senior high school students from one school in Thailand. A STEAM education lesson plan, a test of productive thinking, and a test of learning achievement were used as research tools. Statistics tools including mean, standard deviation, and percentage were used to analyze the data. The study showed that throughout the first and second cycles, students had scored 51.16% and 65.15% on the productive thinking scale respectively. The learning organization improved the academic performance of the students in each cycle. It is reasonable to infer and consider the potential that STEAM education can support students' intellectual development. It is useful for scientific instruction in schools, but teachers also need to be knowledgeable about how to organize their classes.

Efforts to promote disciplinary literacy can help students integrate knowledge with ways of doing and being within disciplinary settings. Yet, effectively facilitating disciplinary literacy, even within an upper-level undergraduate physics course like the one studied here, is surprisingly hard. This article qualitatively analyzes an instructor's responses to student lab reports and finds that his comments to students focused on issues of correctness, often at the expense of larger rhetorical concerns of the text. Analysis also suggests that the instructor was thinking about many rhetorical aspects beyond surface-level errors as he read. Together, these findings suggest that efforts to promote disciplinary literacy, especially related to writing instruction, benefit from recognizing the layered contexts of activity in which writing and responding to lab reports take place. These findings hold value for secondary and postsecondary literacy instruction; in broad terms, this study may serve as a cautionary tale by illuminating the overlapping and competing value systems involved in disciplinary literacy efforts.

Due to the necessity to continue learning even during the pandemic, schools opened utilizing distance learning modalities. However, there is a dearth of evidence on the effectivity of this modalities in physics. In this study, we investigated the effects of three physics distance learning modes; the module-only (MO), virtual lab plus module (VLM), and the physical lab plus module (PLM) classes in physics achievement and metacognition employing the pretest-posttest and repeated measures research designs. All learning modules used were in digital formats sent through free messaging platforms. Analysis of data includes paired samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, repeated measures ANOVA, and independent samples t-test. Results revealed that all three distance learning modes have significantly higher post-test than pre-test scores. Further analysis showed, however, that only VLM had significantly higher gain scores than MO. Initially, at pre-MO and post-MO administrations, male students had significantly higher metacognition but this diminished after they perform both virtual and physical labs. It was in post-PLM where students have significantly better metacognition than pre-MO and post-MO. This study showed that not only do physical and virtual labs supplement distance modular learning, they are also complementary that both must be used in distance learning.

The purpose of this research is to analyze and describe learning textbooks that include elements of science literacy, particularly in the Integrated Science-Physics Test Book for junior high school grade VIII. This study is part of a quantitative descriptive study analyzing the content of science literacy elements contained in textbooks. The textbooks used come from two sources: science textbook for junior high school publisher form Erlangga and Publisher of Ministry of Education and Culture edition Revision 2017. The analyzed materials include (1) force and motion and (2) simple aircraft. The analyzed object of science literacy consists of four indicators: (1) science as science; (2) science as a method of investigation; (3) science as a way of thinking; and (4) science as a technology-society interaction. Data collection techniques are presented in the form of rubrics with descriptive analysis techniques. With a percentage of 46.5% for both textbook sources, the element of science as knowledge was found to be the most important part of science literacy. Furthermore, the element of science as a process of investigation amounted to 37.7%, followed by science as a process of thinking by 12.1%, and finally science as a process of interaction between technology and society by 3.6%. From the analysis results obtained, it is clear that each of the two test books has included aspects of science literacy in its physical science material, but the provision of material is still dominated by the knowledge of science compared to other aspects. Meanwhile, current learning conditions emphasize more on how to integrate learning in the form of STEM, which includes elements of science, technology, and society. Thus, the application of aspects of science literacy, particularly science as a thinking process and science as an interaction between technology and society, should be encouraged.

In the field of physics education research, numerous studies have been dedicated to investigating the relationship between gender identity and physics learning. However, these studies have predominantly employed binary gender measurement methods, which may limit the range of research questions that can be explored and impede the discovery of crucial insights. In this study, we adapted gradational measures from prior research to investigate students' self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny, as well as their reflected appraisal of femininity, masculinity, and androgyny (i.e., perceptions of how others perceive them) in both algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The use of gradational measures revealed significant variation in students' self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny within the binary categories of women and men, providing new insights into gender dynamics in physics. We found that self-identified women in the calculus-based courses, where they are underrepresented, tend to perceive themselves as more masculine and less feminine than how they believe others perceive them. Similarly, students of color are also more likely than White students to perceive themselves as more masculine than they believe others perceive them. Using structural equation modeling, we found that students' gender stigma consciousness plays an important role in mediating the effects of identifying as women and students of color on the observed discrepancies. Additionally, we found that women also exhibit a tendency to perceive themselves as more androgynous than they believe others perceive them in both algebra-based and calculus-based physics courses, and this phenomenon is also related to gender stigma consciousness. Moreover, our analyses revealed that students in the calculus-based courses tend to have a higher level of gender stigma consciousness even after controlling for gender and race. Our findings underscore the potential of gradational gender measurements in deepening our understanding of gender-related issues in physics education, shedding light on the complex interplay between students' gender identity, perceptions from others, and their educational experiences in the field.

A survey of 722 physics faculty conducted in 2008 found that many physics instructors had knowledge of research-based instructional strategies (RBISs), were interested in using more, but often discontinued use after trying. Considerable effort has been made during the decade following 2008 to develop and disseminate RBISs in physics as well as change the culture within the physics community to value RBIS use and other forms of student-centered instruction. This paper uses data from a 2019 survey of 1176 physics instructors to understand the current state of RBIS use in college-level introductory physics, thus allowing us to better understand some of the impacts of these efforts on physics instruction. Results show that self-reported knowledge and use of RBISs has increased considerably and discontinuation is now relatively low. However, although the percentage of time lecturing is less than 10 years ago, many instructors still engage in substantial lecturing (i.e., more than one-third of class time). Relatedly, we find that the majority of RBIS use centers on pedagogies designed to supplement a primarily lecture-based classroom rather than pedagogies designed to support a primarily active learning classroom. This suggests that the physics education research community and beyond has done well promoting knowledge about RBISs and inspiring instructors to try RBISs in their courses. But, there is still room to improve. Based on available evidence about effective instructional practices, we recommend that change agents focus on supporting instructors to increase the percent of class time in active learning and to implement higher impact strategies.

The well-known artificial intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT-4 has become able to process image data as input in October 2023. We investigated its performance on the test of understanding graphs in kinematics to inform the physics education community of the current potential of using ChatGPT in the education process, particularly on tasks that involve graphical interpretation. We found that ChatGPT, on average, performed similarly to students taking a high-school level physics course, but with important differences in the distribution of the correctness of its responses, as well as in terms of the displayed "reasoning" and "visual" abilities. While ChatGPT was very successful at proposing productive strategies for solving the tasks on the test and expressed correct reasoning in most of its responses, it had difficulties correctly "seeing" graphs. We suggest that, based on its performance, caution and a critical approach are needed if one intends to use it in the role of a tutor, a model of a student, or a tool for assisting vision-impaired persons in the context of kinematics graphs.

Physicists engage with the public to varying degrees at different stages of their careers. However, their public engagement covers many activities, events, and audiences, making their motivations and professional development needs not well understood. As part of ongoing efforts to build and support a community in the informal physics space, we conducted interviews with physicists with a range of different experiences in public engagement. We use personas methodology and self-determination theory to articulate their public engagement motivation, challenges, and needs. We present our set of three personas: the physicist who engages in informal physics for self-reflection, the physicist who wants to spark interest and understanding in physics, and the physicist who wants to provide diverse role models to younger students and inspire them to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career. Needs covered a range of resources including science communication training, community building among informal physics practitioners, and mechanisms to recognize, elevate, and value informal physics. By bringing user-centered design methodology to a new topical area of physics education research, we expand our understanding of motivations and needs of practitioners in physics public engagement. Therefore, departments, organizations, and institutions could draw upon the personas developed to consider the ways to better support physicists in their respective environments.

Female students, Latinx students, first-generation students, and transfer students often feel uncomfortable in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) environments. However, some departments have been making progress in changing that. Guided by double consciousness and person-environment fit theory, we investigated the lived experiences of historically marginalized undergraduate and masters-level physics students at a large state university to understand how this particular department provides an environment encouraging all students they fit in physics. Graduated students and faculty were interviewed from California State University, Long Beach. Through the interviews, we gained an understanding of significant student experiences and their perceptions of fit in this physics environment. Department community members perceived the department environment to be open, which contributed to broadening fit and supporting diverse students to thrive. The importance of faculty agency in creating a welcoming and supportive physics environment is highlighted. Finally, we found students in this department take with them an approach to physics that they see applicable to other areas of study and their lives. We called this a physics state of mind. We include suggestions for other STEM departments based on the findings and previous research.

The notion of scientific visual literacy has been advocated in recent science curriculum reform documents and related learning outcomes are expected from students. However, few studies have been conducted to determine how it is tested in high-stakes examinations. This study utilized the Visualization Blooming Tool to examine the level of visual cognition involved in visual-based physics questions in the Senior High School Entrance Examination (SHSEE) in China. Content analysis was adopted as the research method and 12 sets of the SHSEE physics from four Chinese metropolises (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou) in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were targeted. The results indicate that although all four metropolises examined the higher-order visual cognitive skills, they placed more emphasis on the levels of apply and analyze but less on evaluate and create. Moreover, the examination items required students to interpret visual representations more often than to construct them, which may be detrimental to developing students' scientific visual literacy. It is suggested that the examination of higher-order visual cognitive skills and encoded visual representation should be strengthened in future high-stakes physics examinations.

There is a growing need for college science faculty to teach a diverse group of learners. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework can be used to create inclusive learning materials and activities in the higher education science classroom. A UDL Academy introduced science faculty to the UDL framework, which led to them implementing UDL in their classes. A chemistry and physics professor and an environmental science and biology professor participated in the UDL Academy during summer 2021 and implemented UDL in at least one course during the fall 2021 semester. They share their perspectives on the UDL implementations and implications for college science teaching.

The social cure is the concept that strong connections and social bonds are good for wellbeing and physical health. Having strong social support makes hardship easier to cope with. We hypothesize that we could apply the relationship to educational contexts, with a sense of belonging as part of the cohort or community helping students to cope with educational hurdles, resulting in greater wellbeing. We examined the case of women in physics. Previous research has suggested that women in physics classes report a lesser sense of belonging than men. We aimed to replicate this finding and examine how a sense of belonging relates to wellbeing. We surveyed 310 physics students (205 men, 105 women) from a small research-intensive university in the UK. The survey measured students' physics identity, sense of belonging to the physics community, self-efficacy (belief in ability to complete physics-based tasks), and general wellbeing. We found that women and men reported similar levels of belonging and wellbeing, although women reported less physics identity and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy explained a significant fraction of the variance in wellbeing for both men and women. Additionally, belonging explained variance in wellbeing over and above self-efficacy and physics identity for men, but not for women. These results indicate that for men there is a stronger association between belonging and wellbeing, compared to women, but that it does not result in women having an overall lower sense of wellbeing.

A curriculum is generally regarded as an instructional plan that describes what, why and how students should learn. In this comparative study, we analysed the Czech and Slovak intended curricula of science subjects (physics, chemistry, biology, geography, and geology) and mathematics by comparing their national curriculum documents in terms of learning outcomes at the lower secondary level (ISCED level 2). Our analysis showed significant differences in the number of obligatory learning outcomes, which were much higher in the Slovak curriculum than in the Czech curriculum. The structure of these outcomes also differed across subjects and between countries. Nevertheless, the cognitive demands of the learning outcomes analysed using the revised Bloom's taxonomy were similar in the two countries, but metacognitive knowledge and higher-level cognitive processes were rarely represented in either. Additionally, by inductive content analysis of the Slovak curriculum document, we identified two significant groups of cross-curricular requirements, namely outcomes related to scientific inquiry and outcomes requiring working with information. Overall, these learning outcomes are underrepresented in both analysed documents (particularly in the Czech document) even though the skills that these outcomes develop are in high demand in the current context.

Storytelling has the potential to successfully convey knowledge, understanding and experiences in an unintimidating and exciting way to experts as well as non-experts in almost all fields. Storytelling's utility as an information transmission medium makes it an attractive choice for use in classrooms where knowledge sharing, and the construction of understandings are required. The aim in this mixed method case study was to reveal the impact of storytelling, when used as an instructional tool, on students' learning experience when exposed to a unit of work entitled "Light". Observational checklists and students' journal entries were used to: (1) assess students' levels of participation during classroom learning, and (2) solicit students' views about the effectiveness of storytelling to facilitate science learning. The findings revealed high levels of student participation and an overall expression of enjoyment of learning among students when science was presented to them using this method. Students indicated that storytelling was effective in facilitating their understanding of science content and suggested that it should be used more often in science classrooms.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a statistical method widely used in educational research to investigate relationships between variables. SEM models are typically constructed based on theoretical foundations and assessed through fit indices. However, a well-fitting SEM model alone is not sufficient to verify the causal inferences underlying the proposed model, as there are statistically equivalent models with distinct causal structures that equally well fit the data. Therefore, it is crucial for researchers using SEM to consider statistically equivalent models and to clarify why the proposed model is more accurate than the equivalent ones. However, many SEM studies did not explicitly address this important step, and no prior study in physics education research has delved into potential methods for distinguishing statistically equivalent models with differing causal structures. In this study, we use a physics identity model as an example to discuss the importance of considering statistically equivalent models and how other data can help to distinguish them. Previous research has identified three dimensions of physics identity: perceived recognition, self-efficacy, and interest. However, the relationships between these dimensions have not been thoroughly understood. In this paper, we specify a model with perceived recognition predicting self-efficacy and interest, which is inspired by individual interviews with students in physics courses to make physics learning environments equitable and inclusive. We test our model with fit indices and discuss its statistically equivalent models with different causal inferences among perceived recognition, self-efficacy, and interest. We then discuss potential experiments that could further empirically test the causal inferences underlying the models, aiding the refinement to a more accurate causal model for guiding educational improvements.

Statistical mechanics has received limited attention in physics education research and remains a relatively underrepresented topic even in research on upper-division physics courses. The purpose of this study was to explore potential challenges that physics students encounter when they solve statistical mechanics problems in groups. Adopting a grounded approach, we video recorded and analyzed nine small student groups engaging in collaborative problem solving on the topic. The analysis involved iterative thematic coding, which gave rise to ten emergent categories of challenges. These were later divided into two broad groupings: "challenges with concepts" and "challenges with problem-solving strategies." In the first grouping, we list seven identified categories related to the concepts of macrostates and microstates, distinguishable and indistinguishable particles, temperature, entropy, energy, equilibrium, heat bath, the Boltzmann distribution, and the partition function. In the second grouping, we list three categories related to the inappropriate application of common relations, difficulty managing tensions between calculated results and qualitative reasoning, and coming up with definitions of new and inconsistent concepts. Some of our findings are supported by existing research on the topic, and others are previously unreported. Based on our findings, we propose that future research should investigate the relations between the identified challenges on one hand, and students' epistemological framing, reasoning, and use of multiple representations on the other. Finally, we suggest that teachers should spend time engaging students in a conceptual discussion of the central ideas of statistical mechanics, motivating the choice and pointing out limitations of commonly used toy models, and linking course content to real-world phenomena.

This article presents an empirical study of the use of Indigenous knowledge of the "Bulan" kite to teach the concept of "equilibrium" among Muslim students (n = 109 students) in private Islamic schools (in the southern part of Thailand). The design of the culturally responsive teaching comprising three lessons was guided by the 5E model. The study took 7 months from creating three lesson plans and a pre- and post-test until it was implemented in the physics classroom. A pre- and a post-test with 40 multiple-choice items were used to assess students' understanding of equilibrium. A hypothetical model of the construct was validated using a dichotomous Rasch model. To measure learning gains, we fixed the pre- and post-item difficulties and estimated the post-instruction person's ability. The Welch t-test was used to compare the means of pre- and post-instruction person ability. The results indicated that the Rasch model fits the data well. The hypothetical model was confirmed. The successful students showed the person measures with a statistically significant increase (p < 0.01) at the end of the intervention (M[subscript 2] = 1.061, SD[subscript 2] = 0.64) compared to the person measures before the implementation (M[subscript 1] = - 0.001, SD[subscript 1] = 0.591). The implications for learning progression of students are discussed.

Modelling roles of mathematics in physics has proved to be a difficult task, with previous models of the interplay between the two disciplines mainly focusing on mathematical modelling and problem solving. However, to convey a realistic view of physics as a field of science to our students, we need to do more than train them to become fluent in modelling and problem solving. In this article, we present a new characterisation of the roles mathematics plays in physics and physics education, taking as a premise that mathematics serves as a constitutive structure in physics analogous to language. In doing so, we aim to highlight how mathematics affects the way we conceptualise physical phenomena. To contextualise our characterisation, we examine some of the existing models and discuss aspects of the interplay between physics and mathematics that are missing in them. We then show how these aspects are incorporated in our characterisation in which mathematics serves as a foundation upon which physical theories are built, and on which we may build mathematical representations of physical information that in turn serve as a basis for further reasoning and modifications. Through reasoning processes mathematics also aids in generating new information and explanations. We have elucidated each of these roles with an example from the historical development of quantum physics. To conclude, we discuss how our new characterisation may aid the development of physics education and physics education research.

The study focuses on assessing the proficiency levels of higher education students, specifically the physics achievement test (PHY 101) at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). This test, like others, evaluates various aspects of knowledge and skills simultaneously. However, relying on traditional models for such tests can result in inaccurate interpretations of students' abilities. The research highlights the importance of exploring the multidimensional nature of the PHY 101 test to improve its accuracy in measuring student proficiency and enhance education and assessment quality at NOUN. Using an ex-post facto research design, the study analyzed 978 responses from NOUN's Directorate of Examination and Assessment. Through confirmatory and exploratory DETECT techniques, the study found strong evidence supporting the test's multidimensionality. Three distinct dimensions emerged: cognitive processing, reading ability, and problem-solving skills. A parsimonious multidimensional three-parameter logistic model was used to calibrate the test items, providing valuable insights into item difficulty, discrimination, and resistance to chance influences. While the study primarily focuses on the psychometric aspects of the PHY 101 test, it is important to consider its broader impact on the educational community. The research contributes to educational assessment by emphasizing the significance of recognizing and addressing the multidimensional nature of higher education tests. This approach can result in more accurate assessments of students' abilities, ultimately improving education quality and fairness. The findings confirm the multidimensional nature of the PHY 101 test and identify three distinct dimensions, aligning with the study's objective. These insights are relevant to educators and test developers, highlighting the need for a multidimensional approach to effectively assess and enhance student proficiency. For researchers interested in similar studies, it is recommended to explore the broader influence of multidimensional models in educational assessment. Investigating their impact on teaching methods, curriculum development, and student learning experiences can provide valuable insights. Longitudinal studies assessing the long-term effects of multidimensional assessment on student outcomes and success are also recommended.

The most famous equation in physics, E = mc[superscript 2], is rarely introduced in middle school physics curricula. Recent research has shown that teaching Einsteinian concepts at the middle school level is feasible and beneficial. This paper analyses an Einsteinian energy teaching module for Year 8 students (13-14 years old), which encompasses the two fundamental energy formulas in modern physics, E = mc[superscript 2] and E = hf. In the context of activity-based learning, the Einsteinian energy module relates to all the forms of energy in traditional school curricula. This study uses a design-based research approach within the Model of Educational Reconstruction framework. Modern experiments, historical events, and educational research helped us identify relevant Einsteinian energy concepts, activities, and assessments. The study included 22 students who participated in nine in-class Einsteinian energy lessons. Analysing results in the post-test showed a 31% mean increase from the pre-test, a clear and significant positive change in students' conceptual understanding. The results demonstrated students' ability to deal with very large and small constants of proportionality and physical concepts involved in the module.

In recent years, the world of education has become increasingly hybrid (online/on location) and flexible (synchronous/asynchronous), frequently referred to as HyFlex. One of the risks of these mixed environments is the distance between teacher and students that can make interaction, a crucial component of the teaching/learning process, more difficult. This article introduces Evoli, a tool to support the HyFlex model; more specifically, the component dealing with online/asynchronous mode. Evoli enables teachers to receive precise, time-stamped feedback from their students on educational materials (typically videos). Students go through the materials and express their level of understanding as well as their questions and comments. Dashboards with the students' data allow the teacher to know, topic by topic, what is clear and what is not and thus how to organize the synchronous sessions. The tool was evaluated in a real-life setting, involving 63 graduate students in a course on Plasma Physics. The students filled in a System Usability Scale questionnaire and some questions regarding the perceived usefulness of the tool; the teacher's opinion was gathered via a semistructured interview. Results show that students found the tool both usable and useful; the teacher's opinion was that the tool allowed prompting more reactions than in a normal setting and an optimization of a teaching organization.

Game-based learning (GBL) has long been recognized as an effective way to engage students in learning through games, but little emphasis has been placed on scaffolding support for students, which hinders their learning. Therefore, our design of Space Adventure GBL ties games closely to scaffolds at every stage and investigates what role games and scaffolds play and whether greater exposure to games and scaffolds can boost learning. Six classes of 152 8th graders were randomly assigned to unlimited gaming and scaffolding group, limited scaffolding group, and limited gaming group. Students' learning outcomes in physics are optimized when they have unlimited access to GBL's gaming and scaffolding. All three groups perceived similar levels of engagement, engrossment, and total immersion. According to regression, time spent mastering the scaffolds on their first attempt is the most determinant predictor of physics concept learning and engagement, whereas winning the games for the first-time predicts mental model construction, engrossment, and total immersion the most. This study sheds light on future GBL studies that closely tying scaffolds and games challenges could motivate and facilitate students to master scaffolds and win games on their first attempts, resulting in better physics learning performance and more game immersion.

We present a year-long case study that documents the interactions between a teacher-research-mentor (TRM) and two 11th grade students working in their school laboratory on an extended inquiry project that is part of reformed mandatory requirements for advanced-level matriculation in physics. Both the students (females) and the TRM (male) are Arab citizens of Israel, and the school is a public Arab school in Israel. Data were collected through videotaped participant observation of authentic working sessions and interviews with the TRM and the students. The analysis combines an ethnographic account with discourse analysis informed by a sociolinguistic approach that aims to answer the following research questions: (1) how are a teacher's identity-narratives reified in teacher-student discourse in authentic sessions of mentoring students' inquiry? (2) how do they shape students' learning? and (3) how do they emerge from social-historical contexts? The findings problematize the challenges involved in engaging students from nondominant communities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning. The analysis articulates the complexity of this challenge by showing how teachers' identity narratives shape the social construction of student-teacher discourse, generate tensions that undermine successful implementations of reformed learning experiences, and how this vicious cycle is profoundly influenced by the embedding social and historical contexts. The implications for research and practice are discussed.

While many university health science programs include physics courses to raise knowledge and understanding of physical science concepts, they are still far from addressing the needs of that science health profession. This study aimed to investigate the effect of an introductory physics course on first-year physiotherapy and rehabilitation (PR) students' conceptual understanding of simple electric circuits. The study participants were students enrolled in the Physics II course. Eighty-two students registered for the course. Sixty students (73%) took the pretest, and 67 (81%) completed the posttest. 53 students (64%) took the pretest and posttest. This study adopts an exploratory research methodology that includes a one-group pretest-posttest design. The Simple Electric Circuits Diagnostic Test (SECDT) was used to assess students' conceptual understanding. The prevalence of misconceptions was relatively low (before and after instruction), and very few students developed sound conceptual understanding after instruction. The local reasoning model was the most frequent misconception PR students held. After instruction, students' overall confidence in their SECDT responses increased significantly. Interestingly, when the students were grouped into three achievement groups, the medium-achievement group fell into more misconceptions as their achievement increased compared to low- and high-achievement groups. These findings suggested that students' low SECDT scores were due to a lack of knowledge rather than misconceptions.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] This review article provides an overview of research on the topic of gender equity in educational physics labs. As many institutions and instructors seek to evolve or transform physics lab learning, it is important that changes are made that improve equity for all students along multiple axes of identity, including gender. The studies highlighted in this review article describe the existence of complex gender-based differences, e.g., in opportunities to tinker with lab equipment, as well as differences in grades, conceptual understanding, and motivational outcomes across a broad range of lab curricula and contexts. The studies also illustrate and explore social interactions and structures that can impact students' experiences based on their gender identities. Although there has been less scholarship focused on proposals to reduce gender-based inequities in labs, this review article also provides an overview of some relevant proposals as well as associated research results. This overview of research on gender equity in physics labs helps to make clear that future scholarship on equity in physics labs should adopt gender frameworks that allow researchers to transcend binary gender identities and student deficit framing of research results. Likewise, a case is made that future research is needed on equity along other axes of identity, as well as research that accounts for the intersectionality of different identities, in the physics lab context.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] This manuscript presents a case study of an introductory physics student who, during the remote learning conditions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, found inspiration within a new, open-inquiry, project-based, laboratory curriculum designed at Portland State University. The phenomenon investigated by the study subject was intriguing to both the student and the lab instructors for its unfamiliar and instructive optical effect: a ring-shaped pattern or halo created by a laser diffusely reflected in a shallow body of water. Drawing on classwork and interview responses, this study shows that the subject achieved many expected curriculum outcomes, particularly with respect to experimental design and data analysis tasks, indicating that the course's open-inquiry structure can be effective while offering students a free choice of what to investigate in a laboratory class. Additionally, the case study shows that the halo phenomenon is pedagogically rich as it combines refraction, diffuse reflection, and total internal reflection in a nontrivial way, thereby answering calls by physics education researchers for more complex, realistic examples in geometric optics instruction. Finally, this case also highlights challenges students may experience interpreting diffuse reflection and determining the position of optical features beyond image formation, not commonly a focus of introductory physics courses, textbooks, and education research.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] Epistemic beliefs about physics are most often investigated using quantitative instruments that reflect binary conceptualizations of those beliefs. This study reports from a qualitative study which used continua to represent the epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge of sixteen Western Canadian, high school physics teachers. Unlike other research, this study did not intend to compare epistemic beliefs to any specific epistemology of science. This article presents a novel, more nuanced means of analyzing interview data to construct profiles to describe epistemic beliefs. The epistemic belief profiles of the physics teachers in this study reflect each of four areas of a literature-derived theoretical framework regarding epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge. These four areas are individuals' beliefs about the (a) source, (b) content, (c) certainty, and (d) structure of physics knowledge. The use of thematic analysis research methods and reasons for the placement of participants along continua are discussed. Potential classroom applications of this research include prompting discussions about student epistemic beliefs and collecting more nuanced representations of students' epistemic beliefs to inform teaching.

Social semiotic discussions about the role played by representations in effective teaching and learning in areas such as physics have led to theoretical proposals that have a strong common thread: in order to acquire an appropriate understanding of a particular object of learning, access to the disciplinary relevance aspects in the representations used calls for the attainment of representational competence across a particular "critical constellation of systematically used semiotic resources (which are referred to as" modes, "see more on this later)." However, an affirming empirical investigation into the relationship between a particular object of learning and different representational formulations, particularly with large numbers of students, is missing in the literature, especially in the context of university-level physics education. To start to address, this research shortfall the positioning for this article is that such studies need to embrace the complexities of student thinking and application of knowledge. To achieve this, both factor and network analyses were used. Even though both approaches are grounded in different frameworks, for the task at hand, both approaches are useful for analyzing clustering dynamics within the responses of a large number of participants. Both also facilitate an exploration of how such clusters may relate to the semiotic resource formulation of a representation. The data were obtained from a questionnaire given to 1,368 students drawn from 12 universities across 7 countries. The questionnaire deals with the refraction of light in introductory-level physics and involves asking students to give their best prediction of the relative visual positioning of images and objects in different semiotically constituted situations. The results of both approaches revealed no one-to-one relationship between a particular representational formulation and a particular cluster of student responses. The factor analysis used correct answer responses to reveal clusters that brought to the fore three different complexity levels in relation to representation formulation. The network analysis used all responses (correct and incorrect) to reveal three structural patterns. What is evident from the results of both analyses is that they confirm two broad conclusions that have emerged from social semiotic explorations dealing with representations in relation to attempting to optimize teaching and learning. The first, which is linked to a facilitating-awareness perspective, is that any given disciplinary visual representation can be expected to evoke a dispersed set of knowledge structures, which is referred to as their "relevance structure." Thus, the network analysis results can be seen as presenting a unique starting point for studies aiming to identify such "relevance structure." The second broad conclusion is that disciplinary visual representation can and often does contain more "disciplinary-relevant aspects" than what may be directly visible in a given representation. These are referred to as the "appresent" aspects that need to become part of the total awareness needed by someone to constitute an intended meaning. The results of the factor analysis can then also be seen to be a way of capturing "all" the disciplinary-relevant aspects (both present and appresent). Educational implications are discussed.

Digital learning technologies have grown increasingly important in physics education, partly enforced through the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, digital technologies allowed for continued teaching and learning of students even when schools were closed. While research in psychology and educational technology has yielded many insights into the effectiveness of e-learning courses, fewer studies have examined the design of e-learning courses. Few studies have empirically investigated the design of learning tasks as a central element of e-learning courses. The present study analyzes how the design of tasks in e-learning courses, specifically with respect to their degree of openness as well as the relevance of their contexts, influences students' behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. Due to the importance of e-learning courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also analyzed the extent to which specific learning settings (classroom learning, distance learning) influence the effects of e-learning course design on students' behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. To investigate the research questions, we analyzed a total of N = 1060 datasets for 12 different e-learning courses (3 to 5 lessons, middle school physics), of which n = 557 were completed before and n = 503 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that e-learning courses with a high proportion of learning tasks that relate to meaningful real-world contexts appear to be more conducive to behavioral engagement, learning outcomes, and situational interest. Regarding the consideration of open-ended tasks, the results suggest that these appear to be more useful for classroom learning but should be used in a limited way when designing e-learning courses for distance education.

We propose an adaptive methodology for the curricular redesign based on the performance indicators of the student progression observed after a follow-up period. The feasibility of adopting the same approach should be thoroughly studied to assess its compatibility with institutions and countries that employ an academic credit system based on student workload, such as the European Credit Transfer System. This approach was applied here for the Chilean system, which is highly consistent with the European case. The resulting methods can be automated and integrated into institutional databases for the management of teaching-learning processes to enhance decision-making. Special attention is devoted to the methods for estimating the credit points and the relative position of each course in the curriculum sequence chart of a university degree. As an example of application, we discuss the curriculum redesign of the B.Sc. degree in Physics offered by the Universidad Católica del Norte. The analysis is based on the statistical report of performance indicators of this undergraduate program during the follow-up period 2015-2019 (five years). We report a certain correspondence between the problem of credit allocation and the behavior in the student progression, which represents an empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the associated credit points estimation.

For Massive Open Online Courses to have trustworthy credentials, assessments in these courses must be valid, reliable, and fair. Item Response Theory provides a robust approach to evaluating these properties. However, for this theory to be applicable, certain properties of the assessment items should be met, among them that item difficulties are stable over time. The present study evaluates whether this property applies to the assessments of these courses using a case study -- an AP Physics course provided by MITx. To do that, we estimated the item parameters in three administrations of the course and compared them across the administrations. We found that while many items did not meet certain quality criteria, more than a third of the items had stable characteristics over time. Our results demonstrate that Item Response Theory can help evaluate assessment quality in Massive Open Online Courses and suggest that these high-quality items can be used as the core of the course assessment as their properties are consistent across runs. We recommend that creators and instructors of online courses apply similar procedures to evaluate their courses' assessment and instructional design. Making sure the items have similar properties over time can support the assessment validity, reliability, and fairness of online courses.

Students ability to build correct knowledge relies on their understanding of concepts. Students must understand the concept well before applying it in real-life situations. With the advent of technology, teaching and learning quantum physics has been made easier and more effective in enhancing students' critical thinking and conceptual understanding. A multimedia-based learning approach is one way to enhance conceptual understanding. With the help of the multimedia application, this study aims to assess its impact on students' conceptual understanding of quantum physics at the University of Rwanda College of Education (UR-CE). The study adopted a quasi-experimental pre-test--post-test design with control and treatment group. Three hundred eighty-five undergraduate students in the UR-CE were purposively selected and allocated into the treatment group (193 students) and the control group (192 students). Control group students were taught eight quantum physics topics for six weeks using the traditional teaching approach, while treatment group students were taught the same topics using animations, PhET simulations, and YouTube videos. The study resulted in a very high statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) between teaching interventions provided after post-testing in favor of students who learned with multimedia (with a large effect size of 0.694). The use of multimedia resulted in a statistically significant increase in the student's conceptual understanding of quantum physics. The study's findings suggest that multimedia tools are effective for learning because they can enhance students' conceptual understanding of quantum physics. However, interactions between teachers and students or student-to-student are essential to facilitate conceptual learning and help the students gain a valuable understanding of their learning.

Summative assessment is often considered a motivator that drives students' learning. Higher education has a responsibility in promoting lifelong learning and assessment plays an important role in supporting students' capability to make evaluative judgements about their work and that of others. However, as research often focuses on formal pedagogical design, it is unclear what behaviours summative assessment prompts, thus the relationship between summative assessment, learning and evaluative judgement requires further investigation. Drawing on a small-scale ethnography-informed study, this paper adopts a practice theory approach to explore how undergraduate physics students from three year levels make evaluative judgements in the context of summative assessment tasks. The contexts explored through observations and interviews include a graded in-class tutorial, an out-of-class study group for an in-semester assignment, and individual preparation for examinations. The findings suggest that while summative assessment is a crucial aspect of students' learning context, it does not fully shape students' practices. Instead, students engage in incidental conversations about the quality of their work and how to do things in their studies. By focusing on what students "actually do," this study integrates formal and informal aspects of students' learning, highlighting the tensions between undergraduate practices and intended learning outcomes.