Engaging science academics with evidence based practices: Use of concept inventories in chemistry and physics across eight universities

There is ongoing research on how to improve student engagement and attainment in STEM in higher education, with active learning recognised as a feasible approach for several decades now. However, the uptake of active learning, and other evidence-based approaches, is inconsistent. This paper reports on one aspect of an Australian Government funded Fellowship; the specific scholarly practice of the use of concept inventories, widely associated with active learning, to engage academics in evidence-based practices in STEM disciplines. The ultimate aim was to equip lecturers with the tools to measure student attainment. In close collaboration with academics, pre- and post-tests were administered to students in a total of 12 different courses, constituting over 3000 individual student questionnaires collected across eight Australian Universities. We report on the implementation focusing on; engaging staff, the types of concept survey results made visible to staff not generally accustomed to seeing such results, and tentatively offer the possibility of national data on learning gains. Results show that the majority of lecturers engaged and continued the use of concept inventories. Our study demonstrates that concerted use of concept inventories might lead to increased uptake of evidence-based approaches with potential for improved teaching and learning in STEM disciplines

Makerspaces in Physics

Makerspaces are becoming increasingly common in Universities and Schools. However, it has been reported that Makerspaces are not well integrated into educational curricula. In this workshop, we provide some examples of Makerspace projects, we offer a tour of a Makerspace in Northern Thaliand, and engage participants in a ‘Design Thinking’ workshop. These ideas will provide participants with examples of how to effectively use Makerspaces to teach Physics. Intended Audience: School Teacher

WHAT MAKES YOU SAY THAT?

Since the mid 1950s-1960s, scholars like Schwab (1960) regarded inquiry and laboratory learning as important. As well as responding to national policy, teachers and academics needed to respond to changing ideas, where traditional methods of education of the time would not be appropriate. Schwab called for a radical overhaul of aims, methods and structure of science education to cope with changing content and ideas. Focus continued on practical work and laboratories through the development of three types of experiment to be carried out in physics courses. Those being a) unusual or surprising, b) common or relevant materials and/or experiences c) problem solving and knowledge integration (White, 1979), laid out in detail by Leonard (1997) and formalised by the National Research Council (2000). The Australian context to this work was outlined by Cornish (2019) and applied by Gordon (2019). In this project, we build on the previous work done on the importance of investigations in laboratories and classrooms which underpin five inquiry based investigations which are being used in a high school outreach context. The investigations were done during an established outreach program run by a university physics department. Surveys asking if the investigations helped with the understanding of concepts and then probing “What makes you say that?” were given to 990 students with responses qualitatively and quantitatively coded. Results show that students were overwhelmingly positive that physically seeing the practical helped them understand concepts, with students being able to notice the nuanced differences in inquiry features between the investigations, boding well for the learning of inquiry skills in science education. Their answers to conceptual physics questions demonstrated that they did get the physics. Our findings indicate that carefully designed investigations can offer a range of valuable learning opportunities. REFERENCES Cornish, S., Yeung, A., Kable, S. H., Orgill, M., & Sharma, M. D. (2019). Using teacher voices to develop the ASELL Schools professional development workshops. Teaching Science, 65(1), 4. Gordon, T., Georgiou, H., Cornish, S., & Sharma, M. (2019). Science in your pocket: Leaving high school students to their own 'devices' while designing an inquiry-based investigation. Teaching Science, 65(1), 17. Leonard, W. H. (1997). How do college students learn science. Methods of effective teaching and course management for university and college science teachers, 10-13. National Research Council. (2000). Inquiry and the national science education standards: A guide for teaching and learning. Washington DC: National Academic Press. Schwab, J. J. (1960). Inquiry, the science teacher, and the educator. The School Review, 68(2), 176–195. White, R. T. (1979). Relevance of practical work to comprehension of physics. Physics Education, 14(6), 384

LEARNING FROM THE PANDEMIC: APPROVALS AND PROTOCOLS FOR RESEARCH OUTPUT

The current crisis offers a unique opportunity to look at the effects of changes to physics teaching and the physics student experience with the sudden move to online teaching. In this workshop, we will cover tips on getting ethics approval to conduct education experiments and gather data in courses, suitable tools to measure physics student engagement and outcomes, and how to ensure your data collection and analysis are valid (e.g., sample sizes). This will be followed by discussion about what data people are, or plan on, collecting and how to best utilise this going forwards. The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) Physics Education Group (PEG) meeting will follow this, including the election of a new executive team

What goes around comes around: Perspectives on different physics curricula in Australia

The curriculum has always invoked great contestation. In one of the states in Australia, New South Wales, the high school physics curriculum (for university entry) has undergone some significant changes over the last twenty years (Georgiou & Crook, 2017). Rather than incremental changes, these changes were substantial, including attempts to include socially and culturally physics knowledge and to provide students with opportunities to undertake independent research. We discuss the nature of these changes, and how they fit into the landscape of curriculum design, in particular, how certain characteristics seem to cycle in and out of fashion. We also report on teachers’ perspectives of these changes, as reported on a survey administered in 2021, three years after the ‘new’ curriculum had been introduced. Teachers agreed on some aspects in relation to curriculum design in physics, including that it needs to be ‘rigorous’ and mathematical, however, there were also some disagreements, particularly in relation to whether the curriculum was achieving its aim to develop ‘depth’ of knowledge (NSW Education Standards Authority [NESA], 2020). REFERENCES Georgiou, H. & Crook, S. (2017). Watching the pendulum swing: Changes in the NSW physics curriculum and consequences for the discipline. Australian Physics, 54 (6), 214-218. NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), 2020 Nurturing Wonder and Igniting Passion, designs for a new school curriculum: NSW Curriculum Review online: https://nswcurriculumreform.nesa.nsw.edu.au/home/siteAreaContent/524abec1-f0f9-4ffd-9e01-2cc89432ad5

Teachers’ perspectives of the ‘new’ back-to-basics NSW Physics syllabus

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In NSW from 2018, senior high school students have been experiencing a transformed Physics syllabus. This syllabus is considered to take a ‘back-to-basics’ approach where core principles and problem solving were prioritised (NSW Education Standards Authority [NESA], 2020), and was a response to the earlier syllabus which was more contextualised and included a discussion of the history of ideas and technologies. This earlier syllabus (2001-2017), attracted significant attention for straying away from ‘real’ physics, for including too much ‘sociology’, for being ‘dumbed down’ and ‘feminised’ (Georgiou & Crook, 2017). Four years on and amongst a backdrop of falling Physics enrolments and worsening female participation, we ask NSW teachers to share their perspectives on some of the most publicised views on the syllabus. DESIGN AND METHODS Teachers completed a survey with nine demographic questions,18 Likert-style questions and 8 open-ended responses. We received a total of 49 responses, though only 37 were admissible after data screening. RESULTS Teachers mostly agreed that the new syllabus was more ‘rigorous’, higher quality, more mathematical, and they generally enjoyed teaching the subject. However, there were also some disagreements amongst the teachers related to whether the new syllabus excluded certain groups of students and whether the aims of the syllabus, in particular, for achieving ‘depth’, were met. CONCLUSIONS These results have implications for national curriculum reform and aims to improve STEM participation and expertise. REFERENCES NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). (2020). Nurturing Wonder and Igniting Passion, designs for a new school curriculum: NSW Curriculum Review online: https://nswcurriculumreform.nesa.nsw.edu.au/home/siteAreaContent/524abec1-f0f9-4ffd-9e01-2cc89432ad52 Georgiou, H. & Crook, S. (2017). Watching the pendulum swing: Changes in the NSW physics curriculum and consequences for the discipline. Australian Physics, 54(6), 214-218

“They really should have covered that in high school”: A report on the realities of curriculum implementation in high school physics.

Most tertiary courses require some form of explicit or embedded prerequisite knowledge. In physics courses at the University of Sydney, there is some evidence to show that students lack the basic prerequisite or assumed knowledge for study of the subject of thermodynamics, a subject which is taken as part of the first year physics course. The origin of this discrepancy is often cited as a student’s experience at the high school level, and on the surface, it does appear that thermodynamics is less emphasised than other physics topics at this level. To gain a clearer understanding of what is actually taught in the average classroom, a survey was administered to junior science teachers. The survey addressed aspects of curriculum implementation which included time management, content delivery and substance, as well as personal opinions about thermodynamics and its role in the student’s experience with physics. The survey was administered both online and physical forms in order to collect a large enough sample, and was approximately fifteen minutes in length. Teachers were from all the main types of schools in NSW. The results of this survey will be presented here as well as the implications for tertiary physics and science instruction

Ο μύθος της επιστροφής στη νεοελληνική ποίηση του 20ου αιώνα : le mythe du retour dans la poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : Thèses et mémoires - FAS - Département de littératures et de langues modernes]Le mythe du retour dans la poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle La poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle est imprégnée d’un recyclage des formes et des figures d’expression de la mythologie classique grecque. Ce recyclage, tel que pratiqué par des poètes comme Cavafy, Séféris et Elytis, se manifeste et s’articule dans le phénomène du mythe du retour, phénomène qui évolue sous quatre aspects distincts : le mythe (l’histoire) du retour, le retour au mythe, le retour du mythe et le mythe (l’illusion) du retour. La première manifestation de ce mythe du retour s’initie dans un renvoi à l’histoire homérique de l’archétype odysséen. En deuxième lieu s’élabore le retour au mythe, c’est-à-dire le recyclage du mythe dans un cadre idéologique et poétique. Ensuite se façonne un retour du mythe, par lequel la mythologie initiale du retour revient comme un concept où se métaphorise une forme d’expression première. Enfin se conscientise le mythe du retour, où le mythe n’est plus histoire, mais devient illusion.The Μyth of the Return in 20th Century Neo-Hellenic Poetry The Neo-Hellenic poetry of the 20th century is permeated by a recycling of the forms and figures of speech found in classical Greek mythology. This recycling, as practiced by poets such as Cavafy, Seferis and Elytis, is expressed and articulated in the phenomenon of the myth of the return, which evolves on four distinct planes: the myth (story) of the return, the return to the myth, the return of the myth and the myth (illusion) of the return. The first manifestation of this myth of the return is the Homeric story of the Odyssean archetype. Secondly is expressed the return to the myth into a recycled ideological and poetic form. Thereafter is shaped the return of the myth, through which the initial mythology of the return occurs as a concept that enables a primary form of expression. Finally is transcended the myth of the return, which is no longer only story, but illusion.Η νεοελληνική ποίηση του 20ου αιώνα διαποτίζεται από την ανακύκλωση των μυθολογικών μορφών της κλασικής ελληνικής μυθολογίας. Αυτή η ανακύκλωση, επεξεργασμένη από νεοέλληνες ποιητές σαν τον Καβάφη, τον Σεφέρη και τον Ελύτη, εκδηλώνεται ως το φαινόμενο του μύθου της επιστροφής, το οποίο διακρίνεται και εξελίσσεται μέσα από τέσσερις διαφορετικές όψεις : ο μύθος (η ιστορία) της επιστροφής, η επιστροφή στον μύθο, η επιστροφή του μύθου και ο μύθος (η ψευδαίσθηση) της επιστροφής. H πρώτη όψη, ο μύθος της επιστροφής, εμφανίζεται ως η πρωτοπόρα ομηρική επική αναφορά της επιστροφής του Οδυσσέα. Η δεύτερη όψη, η επιστροφή στον μύθο, διακρίνεται ως η επαναχρησιμοποίηση του μύθου ως ιδεολογικού πλαισίου. Στην συνέχεια, ο μύθος της επιστροφής επανέρχεται σαν ιδέα που γεννά μια επιθυμία επιστροφής σε κάποια αρχική ή ουσιαστική μορφή ή κατάσταση. Στην τέταρτη όψη, η επιστροφή είναι αυταπάτη, είναι μύθος. Έτσι λοιπόν συνδυάζεται η τελευταία όψη αυτής της μυθικής ποίησης του μύθου της επιστροφής, όπου ξεφεύγοντας από το ομηρικό αρχέτυπο, παραμένουμε με κάτι το πρωτότυπο

Jumping on the wiki bandwagon with ‘Google docs’

The Wiki is often overlooked as an educational/research tool due to the indifference or uncertainty of potential users. Google docs offers an uncomplicated introduction to the world of Wiki’s. Designed to facilitate collaborations, it allows students, educators and researchers to take immediate advantage of the benefits offered by Wiki technology without the hassle. Join in a discussion on the benefits and pitfalls with using these types of tools and the varied ways in which they can be utilisedin teaching and learning as well as research collaborations

REFLECTIONS ON RUNNING A FREE ONLINE CONFERENCE: ASERA CONFERENCE ONLINE 2020

The Australasian Science Education Research Association’s (ASERA) annual conference, like most other large (or small) gatherings around the world, was not able to take place this year in a face-to-face manner in a physical location due to COVID-19. The online conference format was a first for ASERA, and in fact, is a relatively new idea in science education, and science, more broadly (Reshef et al., 2020). Thus, the aim of this paper is to share reflections from the organising committee of this year’s ASERA conference, comprising of the first and second authors and the president of the ASERA Board, the third author. The reflections focus on the initial decision to go online, the justification for the design of the online conference (including the decision to run it at no/little expense) and how it went on the day. These reflections will contribute to our understanding of running large online research-related events, an occurrence which might be more frequent or likely as we adapt to the ‘new norm’ post-pandemic. REFERENCE Reshef, O., Aharonovich, I., Armani, A. M., Gigan, S., Grange, R., Kats, M. A., and Sapienza, R. (2020). How to organize an online conference. Nature Reviews Material 5(4) 253-6