You are invited to our next Physics and Astronomy Colloquia event taking place on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, from 12:10 - 1 PM in CNS 206/208. At next week’s seminar, we will be joined by Dr. Chandralekha Singh from the University of Pittsburgh.
Presenter: Dr. Chandralekha Singh, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh
Title: How to enhance physics by making it inclusive
Abstract: Instructors often only focus on content and pedagogical approaches to improve student engagement and learning in physics courses. However, students’ motivational characteristics can also play an important role in their engagement and success in physics. For example, students’ sense of belonging in a STEM class, their self-efficacy, and views about whether intelligence in STEM is “fixed” or “malleable” can affect engagement and learning. These types of concerns can especially impact the learning outcomes of women and racial/ethnic minority students and stereotype threats can exacerbate these issues. I will discuss prior research studies that show how different types of social psychological interventions (e.g., social belonging and growth mindset) have improved the motivation and learning outcomes of all students, especially women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. These interventions include providing data to students about how intelligence is malleable, and one can become an expert in a discipline by working hard in a deliberate manner, sharing with the students, examples of testimonials of past students from diverse backgrounds, who struggled initially but then succeeded by working hard and using deliberate approaches. We will discuss how these ecological interventions were adapted and implemented in our physics classes. These types of interventions are short, requiring less than one hour of regular class time even though they have the potential to impact student outcomes significantly—especially for women and other underrepresented racial/ethnic minority students in physics classes.