xE: Considering data from a broad perspective: what about including social, political, and economic factors in Physics Education Research?
Sessions: PE (8:45 - 10) and RE (2 - 3:15)
Organizer: Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado, Boulder
Presenters:
Melissa Dancy, Davidson College
Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado, Boulder
Laura Lising, University of Maryland
Sanjoy Mahajan, Cambridge University
Seth Rosenberg, City College of New York
Each of these posters examines a particular data set from a lens that includes social, cultural, historical, political and or economic drives which shape and are shaped by the environments from which they are drawn. The explicit goal of this session is to describe the importance of including this broadest scale of analysis when creating and studying educational reforms.
"Authority as a Mechanism for Gender Effects in a Seemingly
Gender Neutral Assessment"
Melissa Dancy, Davidson College
This poster explores the epistemological view of authority. I will summarize both the epistemological theories of William Perry, based entirely on men, and Women's Ways of Knowing, based entirely on women. I will then present data from the FCI and ask what these theories offer for data analysis. Finally, I will argue that issues such as epistemology can lead to bias in assessment. Arguments from outside the physics education community will be presented that explain how a standardized test, such as the SAT, could be biased toward a particular race or gender even though the context of the questions, and the skills that appear to be measured, have no obvious connection to race or gender.
"Critical Points: getting students to think before college -- and having to fight to do so."
Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite evolving from rather backgrounds and perspectives, high schools and colleges generally achieve the same results in introductory physics courses. Most widely publicized of these results is that in each of these environments students fail to learn the foundational concepts that are presented. The poster examines data collected from teaching an introductory college physics class offered at a local public high school. How well organized is the high school to prepare students for some of the more progressive reforms found in introductory college classrooms? What are the constraints in each of these environments (college and high school) that allow for the opportunity to reach and teach students?
By comparing data from the high school environment and a large-scale university course covering the same material, this poster examines trends from social- and institutional pressures that shape the forms of learning that may (and may not) occur in these disparate environments.
"Epistemological transfer: Sociopolitical motivations and theoretical perspectives."
Laura Lising, University of Maryland
The state of epistemology and learning research allows us to make a strong case for emphasizing scientific epistemology with our students in order to achieve our learning goals. However, I would like to argue that there are other, perhaps stronger motivations for trying to foster these stances. In particular, I will argue that scientific epistemology is liberation epistemology, crucial for authentic democracy and a tool for those fighting for social justice. One question that arises is how epistemological shifts and resources in different domains occur. Another issue that must be understood is epistemological transfer, the applying of epistemology from one context to another. How much does this happen already? How do we think of epistemological transfer from a resource-theory framework? And how do we foster epistemological transfer and, eventually, epistemological coherence?
"PER: Helping the Student or Serving the Corporate State?"
Sanjoy Mahajan, University of Cambridge
In their first year, physics majors in Cambridge do not understand Newton's first law. After four years of mostly traditional lectures, their understanding is no sounder. When I teach Order of Magnitude Physics, a course for juniors with no exam and lots of discussion and problem solving in class, students say that it was their favorite course because (1) it has no exam and (2) it rekindles their interest in physics, crushed in the previous years. This and other data convinces me not that students need PER, but rather that education alienates students from their learning and trains them for the corporate-warfare State. PER finds its inspiration in cognitive science, which arose from military money and needs (power!); and in science itself, which worships objectivity and universal obedience (power!). PER is therefore ore likely to varnish than to undermine the holy alliance of corporations, war, and education.
"Education for Revolution, not Educational reform: How the history of educational reform and it's relation to the u.s. economy reflects on the goals of independent thinking students."
Seth Rosenberg, City College of New York
This poster posits that there are a number of ‘hidden assumptions’ about the relationship between education and our society. These assumptions include education promoting social mobility and equality, along with personal development and empowerment. The primary goals of this poster are to point out that this role for education is not supported by the data, and to put forth an alternate relationship: the Correspondence Principle developed by Bowles and Gintis . According to the Correspondence Principle, the educational system, like all structures in capitalist society, evolves to mirror, support, and reproduce the relationships and inequalities of our economic system: schools prepare most students jobs in the oppressive economic system. I will support this interpretation using statistical and historical data. Since our educational system mirrors economic inequalities, I will conclude that substantive change will only come from working outside the educational system to radically restructure our economic system through revolution.
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Michael C. Wittmann tel: 207 - 581 - 1237 |
Rachel E. Scherr tel: 301 - 405 - 6179 |