Exploring the relationship between self‐efficacy and retention in introductory physics

The quantitative results of Sources of Self‐Efficacy in Science Courses‐Physics (SOSESC‐P) are presented as a logistic regression predicting the passing of students in introductory Physics with Calculus I, overall as well as disaggregated by gender. Self‐efficacy as a theory to explain human behavior change [Bandura [ 1977 ] Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215] has become a focus of education researchers. Zeldin and Pajares [Zeldin & Pajares [ 2000 ] American Educational Research Journal, 37(1), 215] and Zeldin, Britner, and Pajares [ 2008 ] Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(9), 1036–1058] found evidence that men and women draw on different sources for evaluation of their self‐efficacy in science fields. Further, self‐efficacy is one of the primary dimensions of students' overall science identity and contributes to their persistence in physics [Hazari, Sonnert, Sadler, & Shanahan, 2010 Journal of Research in Science Teaching 47(8), 978–1003]. At Florida International University we have examined the self‐efficacy of students in the introductory physics classes from the perspective of gender theory, with the intention of understanding the subtleties in how sources of self‐efficacy provide a mechanism for understanding retention in physics. Using a sequential logistic regression analysis we uncover subtle distinctions in the predictive ability of the sources of self‐efficacy. Predicting the probability of passing for women relies primarily on the vicarious learning experiences source, with no significant contribution from the social persuasion experiences, while predicting the probability of passing for men requires only the mastery experiences source. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1096–1121, 2012     

Impact of simulator-based instruction on diagramming in geometrical optics by introductory physics students

We examine the conceptual development resulting from an instructional experiment with an interactive learning environment in geometrical optics for introductory high school physics. How did teaching-learning processes come to change the ways in which students depicted various everyday optical situations in paper and pencil graphical representations? We view conceptual development as a process resulting in part from increasingly aligning one's practices to a target community by means of participating in a community of practice that uses the target concepts. For formal science learning, this participation requires changes in concepts, epistemological attitude, and in the development and use of representational tools, including diagrams and technical language, as a means of communication. Results of our instructional experiment indicated that students went through major conceptual developments as reflected in the diagrams they constructed and supported by other representational tools and as judged in terms of several perspectives: in identifying the formation of shadows and images, in recognizing the eye as a participating factpr in the optical system, and in changing the types of justifications they provided in their optical reasoning from presuppositional to causal.     

浅谈物理学前沿与基础物理教学

回顾了国内外物理学前沿在教学中运用的概况，阐述了将物理学前沿引入到基础物理教学中的重要意义，提出了如何将物理学前沿引入到基础物理教学中的几点看法。     

物理课堂教学设计基本要素浅议

教学设计是一门新兴的科学,了解教学设计的基本概念,学习教学设计的基本方法,掌握课堂教学设计的基本要素,对提高物理教学的质量有着十分重要的意义。     

New assessment process in an introductory undergraduate physics laboratory: an exploration on collaborative learning

A new team learning assessment process was designed and tested in a first-year university physics laboratory class. The assessment process was designed to provide a strong incentive for students to cooperate and feel responsible for each other’s learning and fostering a sense of collaboration rather than competition. Specifically, the new assessment process involves randomly dividing students into teams of four to work on a physics experiment and, at the end of the laboratory session, randomly selecting only one team member to carry out a post-laboratory session performance task. The results indicate that learning outcomes were not compromised in the new assessment process and that peer instruction was employed to a greater extent compared to our standard process. Student responses from a post-assessment survey revealed that 76% of students considered our new assessment process to be fair, whereas 57% of students felt our standard process was fair. The new assessment process used in this study led to a 75% reduction in grading duties – an advantage for large class management.     

全日制普通高级中学物理新教材的几点剖析

文章依据现代课程理论和教育心理学理沦，就教材的弹性与新教材的适应性、教材的编制艺术与新教材的可读性、物理认知结构与新教材的知识结构、科学、技术、社会与新教材的内容等四个方面对全日制普通高级中学物理新教材作了剖析。     

对"大、中学物理教学方法相互衔接"的研究

分析了大、中学物理教学方法衔接的现状，总结出大、中学物理教学方法顺利衔接的措施。     

大学物理课程教学改革的理论与实践

大学物理作为大学公共基础课程之一,其教学质量的好差,直接事关学生后续课程的学习,事关高素质创新人才的培养.文章从大学物理教学理念、课程体系、教学方法和教学模式等方面阐述了实施大学物理教学改革的措施和途径.     

前知识与物理教学

文章阐述了前知识形成的原因和特点,以及对物理教学的影响.分析了前知识在物理教学中有利与不利两个方面,以及在教学中如何纠正错误的前知识,而使其在物理教学中起到有利的作用.     

论大学物理课程的文化品性

近年来，大学物理的基础地位受到来自多方面的挑战，其受重视程度正逐渐下降。反审大学物理课程，大学物理课程化品性的严重缺失应是其主要原因之一。加强课程的化品性建设，坚持科学内核与化品性并举的原则，将有利于大学物理课程的发展和教学的改革。     

物理文化与物理教育

本文从学科课程 (物理 )文化入手 ,初步探讨物理文化的教育功能 ,并联系当前的物理教育提出了一些传播物理文化的构想     

大学物理实验课的课程体制研究与探索

黄山学院2002年成立以来,为适应教学改革和素质教育的需要,通过对物理实验课程的研究与实践,本文提出理科大学物理实验课程体制建设的建议。     

普通物理与理论物理打通的必要性

从科技革命对高等院校的影响、现代科学技术发展的必然和对现行物理教材内容的分析三个方面谈了普通物理与理论物理打通的必要性．     

创造力的培养与物理学科教育

本文从物理教育的特殊性出发,探索物理教育对学生创造力培养的作用和策略,以期为教育理论研究和实践提供依据。     

STS 教育与物理课程

本文根据STS教育理论 ,阐述了物理课程中进行STS教育的目标 ,简介了我国在物理课程中进行STS教育的实践 ,并针对我国当前存在的问题提出对策。     

Making learning interesting and its application to the science classroom

Generations of students are graduating from secondary school disinterested in post-secondary study of science or pursuing careers in science-related fields beyond formal education. We propose that destabilising such disinterest among future students requires science educators to begin listening to secondary school students regarding their views of how science learning is made interesting within the science classroom. Studies on students’ interest in response to instructional strategies applied in the classroom communicate the opinions (i.e. the ‘voice’) of students about the strategies they believe make their classroom learning interesting. To this end, this scoping study (1) collects empirical studies that present from various science and non-science academic domains students’ views about how to make classroom learning interesting; (2) identifies common instructional strategies across these domains that make learning interesting; and (3) forwards an instructional framework called TEDI ([T]ransdisciplinary Connections; Mediated [E]ngagement; Meaningful [D]iscovery; and Self-determined [I]nquiry), which may provide secondary school science teachers with a practical instructional approach for making learning science genuinely interesting among their students within the secondary school science classroom context.     

Riemann and theoretical physics

Several mathematical disciplines such as differential geometry, topology and Riemann geometry on which Riemann left his mark have a major impact on physics today. This article describes some of these contributions of Riemann to physics.     

Learning in physics by doing laboratory work: towards a new conceptual framework

Drawing on a study that explores university students’ experiences of doing laboratory work in physics, this article outlines a proposed conceptual framework for extending the exploration of the gendered experience of learning. In this framework situated cognition and post‐structural gender theory are merged together. By drawing on data that aim at exploring the gendered experience of learning in physics in the laboratory setting, a case is made for the proposed conceptual framework to facilitate an analysis of gender as an active process that relates the dynamics of this process to the emerging physicist identities of the students. In other words, this framework allows for an analysis of the gendered learning experiences in a context such as physics education that goes well beyond the usual ‘women‐friendly’ teaching approaches.     

基于物理学史的大学物理课程教学模式创新与实践

本文在分析了大学物理课程传统教学模式的基础上,利用现代教学研究成果及创新教学理念,提出一种基于物理学史的创新教学模式,并进行了实践。阐述了该模式的教学目标、活动步骤以及教学中应注意的问题。     

对物理教学中创造性思维教学涵义的探讨

素质教育已经得到大家的共识,但要将它落到实处,必须在课堂教学中开展创造性思维的教学。什么是创造性思维教学?明确物理教学中创造性思维教学的涵义是物理教学中实施创造性思维教学的前提。在总结前人研究成果的前提下,对创造性思维教学及物理教学中创造性思维教学的涵义进行了探讨。