Abstract
We add to a growing literature suggesting that demographic grade gaps should be attributed to biases embedded in the courses themselves. Changes in the structure of two different introductory physics classes were made while leaving the topics covered and the level of coverage unchanged. First, a class where conceptual issues were studied before doing any complicated calculations had zero final exam grade gap between students from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups and their peers. Next, four classes that offered students a retake exam each week between the regular bi-weekly exams during the term had zero gender gap in course grades. Our analysis indicates that demographic grade gaps can be attributed to the course structure (a course deficit model) rather than to student preparation (a student deficit model).
- Received 8 February 2023
- Accepted 19 July 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020126
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
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Restructuring Classes Can Level the Playing Field
Published 6 September 2023
A study of university-level physics classes shows that changes in course structure can help to eliminate grade gaps between student groups with different races, ethnicities, or genders.
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