Multisited Comparison of Computational Physics Identity Development for High School Students

• In Event: Computational Thinking in Elementary and Secondary Classrooms: Models for Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Objectives
We are interested in what computation integration into high school physics classrooms is doing for the students involved. In particular, we compared the computational integrations of two Michigan high school teachers in their respective classrooms, with the aim of illustrating how the contextual features of the classrooms and the decisions around implementation gave rise to the ways in which students engaged with the computation. We chose to study two schools to compare and relate the insights drawn from the classrooms. How does student engagement and identity development around computation-within-physics compare based on context and differing implementations between two high school physics classrooms?

Background
Computation has been integrated into the physics classrooms of high school physics teachers who attended a workshop over the summer. The workshop was designed to help teachers develop their own computational activities for their physics classes and take the lead in choosing how to introduce computation to their students. These teachers have chosen to implement it in different ways based on the existing cultures of their physics classrooms, demands from policies, and standards on teaching practices. There is a need for diving deeper into how these differences in implementation impact the students and their learning experiences, especially as computational integration in STEM continues to expand (Weintrop et al., 2016).

Methods & Data Sources
We use an adapted framework on identity from Holland et al. (1998) that allows us to analyze student participation in terms of experiences that shape identity development. We employ the methodology of comparative case study to examine and compare how computational integration took root in two Michigan high school physics classrooms. Both physics teachers attended the workshop on computational integration. We took field notes regularly to understand the physics classroom contexts from which the computational integrations arose. We conducted interviews with each teacher to understand decisions in implementing computation, policy-based constraints on curriculum, and the historical cultural context of their physics classroom within their school. We conducted student interviews--both individually and with focus groups--to understand how the students perceived the computational integration, and how those perceptions evolved. We collected selected completed assignments and recorded certain class periods to help us paint a more complete picture of what each class was like.

Results
While both classrooms showcased features of computational integration both helpful and harmful to student identity for physics, the main differences existed in the processes by which those features became valued aspects of what it meant to do computation in those classrooms. We outline our understanding of the process by which the historical and cultural differences between sites led to different backdrops for computational integration.

Scholarly Significance
By demonstrating our understanding of how students developed within the two computational physics settings, we provide insight into some instances of how computation can be useful or harmful to students. Our comparative case study illustrates the importance and impact of context in integrating computation, and provides suggestions for how different contextual features of a physics classroom can be leveraged to improve how students experience computation-within-physics.

Authors

• Patti Hamerski, Michigan State University

• Marcos Caballero, Michigan State University

• Paul W Irving, Michigan State University and CREATE for STEM Institute (MSU)