Dimitri R. Dounas-Frazer

Building classroom and organizational structure around positive cultural values

The Compass Project is a self-formed group of graduate and undergraduate students in the physical sciences at UC Berkeley. Our goals are to improve undergraduate physics education, provide opportunities for professional development, and increase retention of students-especially those from populations typically underrepresented in the physical sciences. Compass fosters a diverse, collaborative student community by providing a wide range of services, including a summer program and fall/spring seminar courses. We describe Compasss cultural values, discuss how community members are introduced to and help shape those values, and demonstrate how a single set of values informs the structure of both our classroom and organization. We emphasize that all members of the Compass community participate in, and benefit from, our cultural values, regardless of status as student, teacher, or otherwise.

Attending to lifelong learning skills through guided reflection in a physics class

We describe a tool, the Guided Reflection Form (GRF), which was used to promote reflection in a modeling-based physics course. Each week, students completed a guided reflection and received feedback from their instructors. These activities were intended to help students connect past experiences to future improvements. We analyzed student reflections so that we could (1) provide insight into the reflection process itself, (2) describe common themes in student reflections, and (3) explore how student reflections change over time. Most students were able to use the GRF to reflect on their learning by narrating experiences, identifying areas for growth, and outlining plans for meeting their goals. Moreover, the themes present in student reflections provide insights into struggles commonly faced by physics students and how these struggles change over time. We discuss the design of the GRF in detail, so that others may use it as a tool to support student reflections.

Investigating the role of model-based reasoning while troubleshooting an electric circuit

We explore the overlap of two nationally-recognized learning outcomes for physics lab courses, namely, the ability to model experimental systems and the ability to troubleshoot a malfunctioning apparatus. Modeling and troubleshooting are both nonlinear, recursive processes that involve using models to inform revisions to an apparatus. To probe the overlap of modeling and troubleshooting, we collected audiovisual data from think-aloud activities in which eight pairs of students from two institutions attempted to diagnose and repair a malfunctioning electrical circuit. We characterize the cognitive tasks and model-based reasoning that students employed during this activity. In doing so, we demonstrate that troubleshooting engages students in the core scientific practice of modeling.

Learning to Do Diversity Work: A Model for Continued Education of Program Organizers

Physics and physics education in the United States suffer from severe (and, in some cases, worsening) underrepresentation of Black, Latinx, and Native American people of all genders and women of all races and ethnicities. In this paper, we describe an approach to facilitating physics students’ collective and continued education about such underrepresentation; its connections to racism, sexism, and other dimensions of marginalization; and models of allyship that may bring about social change within physics. Specifically, we focus on the efforts of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs who are members of a student-run diversity-oriented organization in the physics department at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), a large, selective, predominantly White public university with high research activity. This group’s education was accomplished through quarterly Diversity Workshops. Here we report on six Diversity Workshops that were co-designed and facilitated by the authors. We describe th...

Using Peer Feedback to Promote Reflection on Open-Ended Problems

This paper describes a new approach for learning from homework called Peer-Assisted Reflection (PAR). PAR involves students using peer feedback to improve their work on open-ended homework problems. Collaborating with peers and revising one’s work based on the feedback of others are important aspects of doing and learning physics. While notable exceptions exist, homework and exams are generally individual activities that do not support collaboration and refinement, which misses important opportunities to use assessment for learning. In contrast, PAR provides students with a structure to iteratively engage with challenging, open-ended problems and solicit the input of their peers to improve their work.

The role of metacognition in troubleshooting: an example from electronics

Students in physics laboratory courses, particularly at the upper division, are often expected to engage in troubleshooting. Although there are numerous ways in which students may proceed when diagnosing a problem, not all approaches are equivalent in terms of providing meaningful insight. It is reasonable to believe that metacognition, by assisting students in making informed decisions, is an integral component of effective troubleshooting. We report on an investigation of authentic student troubleshooting in the context of junior-level electronics courses at two institutions. Think-aloud interviews were conducted with pairs of students as they attempted to repair a malfunctioning operational-amplifier circuit. Video data from the interviews have been analyzed to examine the relationship between each groups troubleshooting activities and instances of socially mediated metacognition. We present an analysis of a short episode from one interview.