We report on a profession-oriented course we offered at the University of Vienna, aimed at physics education teacher students. The course on Theoretical Classical Mechanics has been conceived and designed from its outset with the explicit goal of bridging the gap between the abstract, mathematical notions employed in Theoretical Physics with the concrete future needs of prospective teachers in their profession. We aimed at countering both the negative attitudes of students towards Theoretical Physics and the interrelated skepticism of professors regarding the students mathematical proficiency. Our main findings are that these goals can indeed be achieved through a careful selection of course material and the associated mathematical tools, by closely interwoven lecture topics and exercises, and thorough planning according to principles for high-school teaching known from science education research. Establishing close connections between the material taught in the course and the students future occupation as high-school teachers has proven to be of utmost importance. This is possible without any sacrifice of mathematical rigor or of the quality of Physics presented.
Quantum information science (QIS) is an emerging interdisciplinary field at the intersection of physics, computer science, electrical engineering, and mathematics leveraging the laws of quantum mechanics to circumvent classical limitations on information processing. With QIS coursework proliferating across US institutions, including at the undergraduate level, we argue that it is imperative that ethics and social responsibility be incorporated into QIS education from the beginning. We discuss ethical issues of particular relevance to QIS education that educators may wish to incorporate into their curricula. We then report on findings from focus interviews with six faculty who have taught introductory QIS courses, focusing on barriers to and opportunities for incorporation of ethics and social responsibility (ESR) into the QIS classroom. Few faculty had explicitly considered discussion of ethical issues in the classroom prior to the interview, yet instructor attitudes shifted markedly in support of incorporating ESR in the classroom as a result of the interview process itself. Taking into account faculty's perception of obstacles to discussing issues of ESR in coursework, we propose
In the last decade, major efforts have been made to promote inquiry-based mathematics learning at the tertiary level. The Inquiry-Based Mathematics Education (IBME) movement has gained strong momentum among some mathematicians, attracting substantial funding, including from some US government agencies. This resulted in the successful mobilization of regional consortia in many states, uniting over 800 mathematics education practitioners working to reform undergraduate education. Inquiry-based learning is characterized by the fundamental premise that learners should be allowed to learn 'new to them' mathematics without being taught. This progressive idea is based on the assumption that it is best to advance learners to the level of experts by engaging learners in mathematical practices similar to those of practising mathematicians: creating new definitions, conjectures and proofs - that way learners are thought to develop 'deep mathematical understanding'. However, concerted efforts to radically reform mathematics education must be systematically scrutinized in view of available evidence and theoretical advances in the learning sciences. To that end, this scoping review sought to con
Generative AI has had a profound impact on biomedicine and health, both in professional work and in education. Based on large language models (LLMs), generative AI has been found to perform as well as humans in simulated situations taking medical board exams, answering clinical questions, solving clinical cases, applying clinical reasoning, and summarizing information. Generative AI is also being used widely in education, performing well in academic courses and their assessments. This review summarizes the successes of LLMs and highlights some of their challenges in the context of education, most notably aspects that may undermines the acquisition of knowledge and skills for professional work. It then provides recommendations for best practices overcoming shortcomings for LLM use in education. Although there are challenges for use of generative AI in education, all students and faculty, in biomedicine and health and beyond, must have understanding and be competent in its use.
Contribution: This article analyzes the learning effectiveness of a virtual educational escape room for teaching software engineering and compares this activity with traditional teaching through a randomized controlled trial. Background: Educational escape rooms have been used across a wide variety of disciplines at all levels of education and they are becoming increasingly popular among teachers. Nevertheless, there is a clear general need for more robust empirical evidence on the learning effectiveness of these novel activities and, particularly, on their application in software engineering education. Research Questions: Is game-based learning using educational escape rooms more effective than traditional lectures for teaching software engineering? What are the perceptions of software engineering students toward game-based learning using educational escape rooms? Methodology: The study presented in this article is a randomized controlled trial with a pre-and post-test design that was completed by a total of 326 software engineering students. The 164 students belonging to the experimental group learned software modeling by playing an educational escape room whereas the 162 student
Cybersecurity professionals need hands-on training to prepare for managing the current advanced cyber threats. To practice cybersecurity skills, training participants use numerous software tools in computer-supported interactive learning environments to perform offensive or defensive actions. The interaction involves typing commands, communicating over the network, and engaging with the training environment. The training artifacts (data resulting from this interaction) can be highly beneficial in educational research. For example, in cybersecurity education, they provide insights into the trainees' learning processes and support effective learning interventions. However, this research area is not yet well-understood. Therefore, this paper surveys publications that enhance cybersecurity education by leveraging trainee-generated data from interactive learning environments. We identified and examined 3021 papers, ultimately selecting 35 articles for a detailed review. First, we investigated which data are employed in which areas of cybersecurity training, how, and why. Second, we examined the applications and impact of research in this area, and third, we explored the community of res
This systematic mapping study consisted of tracking the scientific literature that addresses the issue of analogies as a didactic strategy in science teaching. An analogy can be understood as comparing an existing knowledge with a new knowledge to achieve a better understanding of the new knowledge as a result of the comparison of similarities; or in other words, use students' own concepts to introduce new concepts using comparisons between the two. The purpose of this study was to identify, analyze, synthesize and evaluate research works that touched on this topic, with this, to have knowledge about the models of uses of analogies, most used didactic strategies, research methodologies in this field and how to evaluate the learning effectiveness of working with analogies. The methodology that was used is the systematic mapping study; Five questions were posed that guided the information tracking process. Later, the electronic documents in English for the last twenty years were traced in five databases related to the educational field. Finally, it is concluded by responding to the purpose of the study where it is evident that, broadly speaking, the research methodologies in this fie
Phosphorus (P) is considered to be one of the key elements for life, making it an important element to look for in the abundance analysis of spectra of stellar systems. Yet, there exists only a handful of spectroscopic studies to estimate the P abundances and investigate its trend across a range of metallicities. We have observed full HK band spectra at a spectral resolving power of R=45,000 with IGRINS instrument. Abundances are determined using SME in combination with 1D MARCS stellar atmosphere models. The investigated sample of stars have reliable stellar parameters estimated using optical FIES spectra (GILD; Jönsson et al. in prep.). In order to determine the P abundances from the 16482.92 Angstrom P line, we take special care of the CO($ν=7-4$) blend. We determine the C, N, O abundances from atomic carbon and a range of non-blended molecular lines (CO, CN, OH) which are aplenty in the H band region of K giant stars, assuring an appropriate modelling of the blending CO($ν=7-4$) line. We present [P/Fe] vs [Fe/H] trend for 38 K giant stars in the metallicity range of -1.2 dex $<$ [Fe/H] $<$ 0.4 dex. We find that our trend matches well with the compiled literature sample of
Physics Education Research (PER) practitioners have engaged in substantial curriculum development and dissemination work in recent years. Yet, it appears that this work has had minimal influence on the fundamental teaching practices of typical physics faculty. To better understand this situation interviews were conducted with 5 likely users of physics education research. All reported making changes in their instructional practices and all were influenced, to some extent, by educational research. Yet, none made full use of educational research and most had complaints about their interactions with educational researchers. In this paper we examine how these instructors used educational research in making instructional decisions and identify divergent expectations about how researchers and faculty can work together to improve student learning. Although different instructors emphasized different aspects of this discrepancy between expectations, we believe that they are all related to a single underlying issue: the typical dissemination model is to disseminate curricular innovations and have faculty adopt them with minimal changes while faculty expect researchers to work with them to inc
Publication patterns of 79 forest scientists awarded major international forestry prizes during 1990-2010 were compared with the journal classification and ranking promoted as part of the 'Excellence in Research for Australia' (ERA) by the Australian Research Council. The data revealed that these scientists exhibited an elite publication performance during the decade before and two decades following their first major award. An analysis of their 1703 articles in 431 journals revealed substantial differences between the journal choices of these elite scientists and the ERA classification and ranking of journals. Implications from these findings are that additional cross-classifications should be added for many journals, and there should be an adjustment to the ranking of several journals relevant to the ERA Field of Research classified as 0705 Forestry Sciences.
Mobile health has the potential to revolutionize health care delivery and patient engagement. In this work, we discuss how integrating Artificial Intelligence into digital health applications-focused on supply chain, patient management, and capacity building, among other use cases-can improve the health system and public health performance. We present an Artificial Intelligence and Reinforcement Learning platform that allows the delivery of adaptive interventions whose impact can be optimized through experimentation and real-time monitoring. The system can integrate multiple data sources and digital health applications. The flexibility of this platform to connect to various mobile health applications and digital devices and send personalized recommendations based on past data and predictions can significantly improve the impact of digital tools on health system outcomes. The potential for resource-poor settings, where the impact of this approach on health outcomes could be more decisive, is discussed specifically. This framework is, however, similarly applicable to improving efficiency in health systems where scarcity is not an issue.
The NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) partners small groups of educators with a research astronomer for a year-long authentic research project. This program aligns well with the characteristics of high-quality professional development (PD) programs and has worked with a total of 103 educators since 2005. In this paper, surveys were explored that were obtained from 74 different educators, at up to four waypoints during the course of 13 months, incorporating data from the class of 2010 through the class of 2017. This paper investigates how participating teachers describe their motivations for participating in NITARP as evidenced in these feedback forms. Analysis of self-reported data allows a mapping onto a continuum ranging from more inward-focused to more outward-focused; there is a shift from more inward-focused responses to more outward-focused responses. This insight into teacher motivations has implications for how the educators might be supported during their year with the program. This work provides a new way of parameterizing why educators participate in PD programs that require a considerable investment of time. NITARP, since it has many qualities of succe
For many students, introductory college science courses are often the only opportunity in their formal higher education to be exposed to science, shaping their view of the subject, their scientific literacy, and their attitudes towards their own ability in STEM. While science writing instruction has been demonstrated to impact attitudes and outlooks of STEM majors in their coursework, this instructional strategy has yet to be explored for non-majors. In this work, we investigate student attitudes towards STEM before and after taking a writing-intensive introductory astronomy course. We find that students cite writing about science as beneficial to their learning, deepening their understanding of science topics and their perspective on science as a field and finding writing to be a "bridge" between STEM content and their focus on humanities in their majors. Students also report increased perceptions of their own ability and confidence in engaging with STEM across multiple metrics, leaving the course more prepared to be informed, engaged, and science literate citizens.
Contribution: This article analyzes the learning and motivational impact of teacher-authored educational video games on computer science education and compares its effectiveness in both face-to-face and online (remote) formats. This work presents comparative data and findings obtained from 217 students who played the game in a face-to-face format (control group) and 104 students who played the game in an online format (experimental group). Background: Serious video games have been proven effective at computer science education, however, it is still unknown whether the effectiveness of these games is the same regardless of their format, face-to-face or online. Moreover, the usage of games created through authoring tools has barely been explored. Research Questions: Are teacher-authored educational video games effective in terms of learning and motivation for computer science students? Does the effectiveness of teacher-authored educational video games depend on whether they are used in a face-to-face or online format? Methodology: A quasi-experiment has been conducted by using three instruments (pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire) with the purpose of comparing the effectiveness o
Background: Social media public health campaigns have the advantage of tailored messaging at low cost and large reach, but little is known about what would determine their feasibility as tools for inducing attitude and behavior change. Objective: The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of designing, implementing, and evaluating a social media-enabled intervention for skin cancer prevention. Conclusions: Social media-disseminated public health messages reached more than 23% of the Northern Ireland population. A Web-based survey suggested that the campaign might have contributed to improved knowledge and attitudes toward skin cancer among the target population. Findings suggested that shocking and humorous messages generated greatest impressions and engagement, but information-based messages were likely to be shared most. The extent of behavioral change as a result of the campaign remains to be explored, however, the change of attitudes and knowledge is promising. Social media is an inexpensive, effective method for delivering public health messages. However, existing and traditional process evaluation methods may not be suitable for social media.
Rankings of scholarly journals based on citation data are often met with skepticism by the scientific community. Part of the skepticism is due to disparity between the common perception of journals' prestige and their ranking based on citation counts. A more serious concern is the inappropriate use of journal rankings to evaluate the scientific influence of authors. This paper focuses on analysis of the table of cross-citations among a selection of Statistics journals. Data are collected from the Web of Science database published by Thomson Reuters. Our results suggest that modelling the exchange of citations between journals is useful to highlight the most prestigious journals, but also that journal citation data are characterized by considerable heterogeneity, which needs to be properly summarized. Inferential conclusions require care in order to avoid potential over-interpretation of insignificant differences between journal ratings. Comparison with published ratings of institutions from the UK's Research Assessment Exercise shows strong correlation at aggregate level between assessed research quality and journal citation `export scores' within the discipline of Statistics.
During the past twelve years, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has supported a wide range of Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) activities, targeting K-14 students and the general public. The purpose of the Fermi E/PO program is to increase student and public understanding of the science of the high-energy Universe, through inspiring, engaging and educational activities linked to the mission's science objectives. The E/PO program has additional more general goals, including increasing the diversity of students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) pipeline, and increasing public awareness and understanding of Fermi science and technology. Fermi's multi-faceted E/PO program includes elements in each major outcome category: Higher Education; Elementary and Secondary Education; Informal Education and Public Outreach.
We report on the final electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the Z resonance by the experiments operating at the electron-positron colliders SLC and LEP. The data consist of 17 million Z decays accumulated by the ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP, and 600 thousand Z decays by the SLD experiment using a polarised beam at SLC. The measurements include cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries and polarised asymmetries. The mass and width of the Z boson, $\MZ$ and $\GZ$, and its couplings to fermions, for example the $ρ$ parameter and the effective electroweak mixing angle, are precisely measured. The number of light neutrino species is determined to be 2.9840+/-0.0082. The results are compared to the predictions of the Standard Model. Electroweak radiative corrections beyond the running of the QED and QCD coupling constants are observed with a significance of five standard deviations, and in agreement with the Standard Model. Of the many Z-pole measurements, the forward-backward asymmetry in b-quark production shows the largest difference with respect to its Standard Model expectation, at the level of 2.8 standard deviations. Through radiative correctio
The gap between theory and practice is well-documented in educational research. Physics teachers' willingness to apply research findings in practice may be influenced by a sceptical attitude towards science education research. This study explores physics teachers' perspectives on science education research, with a particular focus on potential scepticism towards the discipline. A two-step mixed-methods approach was employed: (1) Interviews with a purposeful sample of 13 experienced physics teachers for a first exploration of attitudes towards physics education research, and (2) a quantitative survey of 174 physics teachers to examine, among other aspects, the previously observed attitudes in a larger sample and to identify teacher profiles using latent profile analysis. The interview study revealed both sceptical and non-sceptical attitudes towards physics education research, including some that fundamentally questioned its practical value. Based on the survey data and latent profile analysis, four distinct teacher profiles differing in their level of scepticism towards science education research were identified. While one profile is highly sceptical, the other three exhibit a mix
Pre-post testing is a commonly used method in physics education community for evaluating students' achievement and or the effectiveness of teaching through a specific period of instruction. A popular method to analyze pre-post testing results is the normalized gain first brought to the physics education community in wide use by R.R. Hake. This paper presents a measurement based probabilistic model of the dynamic process of learning that explains the experimentally observed features of the normalized gain. In Hake's study with thousands of students' pre-post testing results, he observed that on average 48 courses employing "interactive engagement" types of instruction achieved average normalized gains about two standard deviations greater than did 14 courses subjected to traditional instruction. For all courses the average normalized gains had a very low correlation +0.02 with average pretest scores. This feature of the normalized gain has allowed researchers to investigate the effectiveness of instruction using data collected from classes with widely different average pretest scores. However, the question of why the average normalized gain has this feature and to what extent this f