Tran Khanh, Barrera Ana Maria, Coble Kim, Arreguin Mireya, Harris Marissa, Macha-Lopez Alex, Perez Michaela, Eroy-Reveles Alegra
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47905, USA.
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California 94132, USA.
Phys Rev Phys Educ Res. 2022 Jul-Dec;18(2). doi: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.18.020139. Epub 2022 Nov 29.
At a large, diverse, hispanic-serving, master's-granting university, the Alma Project was created to support the rich connections of life experiences of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students that come from racially diverse backgrounds through reflective journaling. Utilizing frameworks in ethnic studies and social psychology, the Alma Project aims to make learning STEM inclusive by affirming the intersectional identities and cultural wealth that students bring into STEM classrooms. Approximately once per month students who participate in the Alma Project spend 5-10 min at the beginning of class responding to questions designed to affirm their values and purpose for studying STEM in college. Students then spend time in class sharing their responses with their peers, to the extent that they feel comfortable, including common struggles and successes in navigating through college and STEM spaces. For this study, we analyze 180 reflective journaling essays of students enrolled in General Physics I, an algebra-based introductory physics course primarily for life science majors. Students were enrolled in a required lab, a self-selected community-based learning program (Supplemental Instruction), or in a small number of instances, both. Using the community cultural wealth framework to anchor our analysis, we identified 11 cultural capitals that students often expressed within these physics spaces. Students in both populations frequently expressed aspirational, attainment, and navigational capital, while expressions of other cultural capitals, such as social capital, differ in the two populations. Our findings suggest that students bring rich and diverse perspectives into physics classrooms when asked to reflect about their lived experiences. Moreover, our study provides evidence that reflective journaling can be used as an asset-based teaching tool. By using reflective journaling in physics spaces, recognizing students' assets has the potential for physics educators to leverage students' lived experiences, goals, and values to make physics learning more meaningful and engaging.
在一所规模较大、多元化、以服务西班牙裔学生为主且授予硕士学位的大学中，“阿尔玛项目”应运而生，旨在通过反思性日志记录，支持来自不同种族背景的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业学生丰富的生活经历联系。利用民族研究和社会心理学的框架，“阿尔玛项目”旨在通过肯定学生带入STEM课堂的交叉身份和文化财富，使STEM学习具有包容性。参与“阿尔玛项目”的学生大约每月一次，在课程开始时花5 - 10分钟回答旨在肯定他们在大学学习STEM的价值观和目的的问题。然后，学生们在课堂上与同龄人分享他们的回答，只要他们感到自在，包括在应对大学和STEM领域时的共同困难和成功经历。在本研究中，我们分析了180篇参加大学物理I课程的学生的反思性日志文章，这是一门主要面向生命科学专业学生的基于代数的基础物理课程。学生们参加了一门必修实验课、一个自选的基于社区的学习项目（补充教学），或者在少数情况下两者都参加。我们以社区文化财富框架为分析基础，确定了学生在这些物理学习空间中经常表达的11种文化资本。两类学生群体都经常表达抱负、成就和导航资本，而其他文化资本，如社会资本的表达在两类群体中有所不同。我们的研究结果表明，当被要求反思他们的生活经历时，学生们会将丰富多样的观点带入物理课堂。此外，我们的研究提供了证据，证明反思性日志记录可以用作一种基于资产的教学工具。通过在物理学习空间中使用反思性日志记录，认识到学生的资产有可能让物理教育工作者利用学生的生活经历、目标和价值观，使物理学习更有意义且更具吸引力。
