Transforming Educational Practices in Introductory Physics

Despite research-based instructional strategies in introductory physics becoming increasingly widespread, how these strategies are implemented is not well understood. I will examine how educational innovations are taken up, take root, and transform educational practices. Data are analyzed from two case studies at the University of Colorado: the use of Peer Instruction (PI) and the use of the Tutorials in Introductory Physics (Tutorials). My research studies on PI establish that 1) professors’ practices differ strikingly, thus exposing students to different scientific practices, 2) variations in classroom practices create different classroom norms, and 3) students perceive PI classrooms differently depending on PI implementation. My investigations into the use of Tutorials reveal that focusing purely on individual professors does not fully capture the complexity of the change processes associated with the adoption of new instructional strategies. We find that structural changes in how institutions operate are coupled with changes in how professors teach. These findings call into question the common assumption of dissemination approaches that focus solely on professors’ adoption and individual use of curricular materials, and suggest that approaches to educational change might be more successful by coordinating and addressing multiple levels of the educational system simultaneously.

Chandra Turpen received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her PhD. in physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is currently a Post Doctoral Research Assistant at Western Michigan University working with Charles Henderson and Melissa Dancy. Working with Noah Finkelstein during her PhD work, she helped to build the Physics Education Research Group at Colorado. Her doctoral research investigated the following research questions: As physics instructors engage in using new educational technologies, such as Peer Instruction and Tutorials in Introductory Physics, how are classroom practices altered? What institutional and departmental changes support or impede course transformation? Through collaborations with colleagues in the CU School of Education, she has approached these research questions using mixed methodologies, such as quantitative classroom assessments and extensive qualitative data collection through participant observations of classroom practices and interviews. She has also been involved in establishing informal science learning environments that simultaneously engage underprivileged youth in science inquiry and empower undergraduate physics students with an interest in teaching.