arXiv subjects

Tor Ole B. Odden

Publications and source records attributed to Tor Ole B. Odden.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Studying Impact and Intent of Design: Conjecture Mapping for Affect-Centered Analysis

Physics education researchers have argued that authentic physics education includes computation as part of a physics student's training, and many parties have made efforts towards this goal. However, most research on this teaching modality has centered cognitive impacts rather than affective impacts, so little is known about the affective outcomes of holistically integrating computation into physics courses. To address that need, we present a case study of a multi-day activity within a computationally integrated modern physics laboratory course. With data from ethnographic course observations and semi-structured interviews, we introduce a novel modification of conjecture mapping to distinguish between the professor's intent behind the activity design and the impact on a student's physics computational literacy and physics identity. In doing so, we highlight the methodological suitability of conjecture mapping for comparing the intent and impact of curricular design and explicate the specific misalignments that led to different affective outcomes than intended.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2026

Same Activity, Divergent Impacts: Representing Paths Towards Physics Computational Literacy and Physics Identity with Conjecture Mapping-Based Narrative Analysis

Integrating computation into physics teaching is a curricular move that, at present, has been predominately studied for its cognitive impacts. However, if this modality of instruction shifts how students engage with physics, we argue there is room for students to redefine what it means to do physics and how they perceive themselves relative to the field. To investigate this, we situate a comparative case study in the context of a computationally integrated physics course. We study two students' experiences with a multi-day activity to understand how and why they came to affectively divergent self-perceptions. We propose a modified use of conjecture mapping to visualize the production of affective outcomes and connect narrative analysis to activity design. Our analysis highlights how different interpretations of and engagement with activity design reflect students' epistemic framing of code, which, in turn, drives engagement with scaffolding in manners that shape self-perception.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2026

A Framework for Deductive Semantic Content Analysis at Scale in Science Education Using Text Embeddings

Qualitative content analysis of open-ended survey responses is a commonly used research method in science education. However, traditional coding approaches are often time-consuming and prone to inconsistency, especially when applied to large datasets. Existing solutions from Natural Language Processing such as supervised classifiers, topic modeling techniques, and generative large language models have limited applicability in analysis of open-ended survey responses, since they demand extensive labeled data, disrupt established qualitative workflows, and/or yield variable results. In this paper, we introduce a text embedding-based classification framework called Deductive Semantic Content Analysis (DeSCA) that requires only a handful of examples per category to run, is transparent and replicable, and fits well with standard qualitative workflows. When benchmarked against human analysis of a physics education survey consisting of 2899 open-ended responses, the method described by our framework achieves high agreement with expert human coders across ten embeddings models on a simulated exhaustive coding task, using approximately 1-2% of the total dataset for training. The method achieves lower agreement on a complete selective coding task; this performance, however, improves with fine-tuning of the text embedding model, which can be done with a small amount of additional data. We unpack these results in terms of the theoretical assumptions of text embeddings, and further demonstrate how embeddings can be used to audit previously-analyzed datasets for coding consistency. These findings demonstrate that text embedding-assisted coding can flexibly scale to thousands of responses without sacrificing interpretability, opening avenues for deductive qualitative analysis at scale.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

How undergraduate physics students use generative AI for computational modeling

Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is becoming increasingly prevalent and capable in physics, particularly for programming-related tasks. How, then, does genAI affect students' computational modeling? We interviewed 19 undergraduate students who had recently completed an open-ended computational assignment that encouraged the use of genAI, asking them how they used it. We then conducted a thematic analysis of these interviews using a framework for computational modeling in physics. We found that genAI significantly impacts several aspects of students' computational modeling, such as the planning, implementing, and debugging of computational models. GenAI can also help students find resources and introduce them to new computational tools. Productive use of genAI was associated with students limiting its use to small steps in the modeling process and consistently double-checking the formulas, explanations, and code it provided. We also identified challenges students faced due to an over-reliance on genAI, such as working from false model assumptions and not spending time learning the fundamentals of computational modeling, especially debugging. Finally, we discuss implications for teaching, such as the need to teach students how to use genAI productively and to urge them to plan before they code. We also highlight the continued value of low-stakes assessment and teaching assistants for teaching computational modeling, as the task remains difficult even with the introduction of genAI.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2026

Physics Computational Literacy: Programming, modeling and collaboration at the journeyman level

Computation has become an integral part of physics research. However, little is known about how students learn to productively use computation as a tool beyond the introductory level, especially as they transition into physics research. In this study, we apply the theory of physics computational literacy and the novice-expert framework to describe the development of expertise in computational physics, as students transition from novice to journeyman computational physicists. We base this description on a thematic analysis of interviews with 13 computational physics master's students with extensive experience using computation. We first describe the most important elements driving the development of computational physics expertise, identifying two distinct transitions of competence during their studies, driven by experience with large computational projects and professional research. We then present an overview of the various skills students attain on this path toward the journeyman level of computational physics expertise. Based on these results, we argue for the need to assist students in collaborative coding and in the learning of new tools, as well as for the importance of large, scaffolded, computational projects in helping students develop the advanced skills needed for computational research.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2025

Uncovering shifts in the history of Physics education: a systematic, NLP-based, thematic analysis of articles from The Physics Teacher and Physics Education journals (1966-2019)

This study explores the thematic evolution of articles in The Physics Teacher and Physics Education journals, over a critical period in modern history, from the Cold War era to the pre-pandemic world (1966 - 2019). Using an NLP-based inductive topic modeling approach, we identify recurring themes that have shaped the physics education literature, including content-based topics, teaching methodologies, laboratory practices, curriculum development, and the influence of Physics Education Research (PER). Our findings reveal both overarching trends and distinct thematic preferences between the journals. Physics Education has historically emphasized curriculum structures, social aspects of education, and interdisciplinary connections, whereas The Physics Teacher has focused more on pedagogical strategies, demonstrations, and practical teaching tools. Over the past three decades, both journals have increasingly incorporated discussions on technology, computation, and PER-driven instructional practices. By tracing these developments over five decades, this study provides a broader perspective on how physics education has responded to changing educational priorities, technological advancements, and research developments.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2024

How Physics Students Develop Disciplinary Computational Literacy

Computation has revolutionized science and is gradually making its way into science teaching and learning. However, we currently lack theoretical frameworks to make sense of how students learn to use computation as a disciplinary tool. In this study, we propose disciplinary computational literacy as a productive theoretical lens on this subject. This theoretical perspective views computation as a new type of literacy consisting of material, cognitive, and social elements. We argue that these elements will necessarily vary by discipline and use case studies of two pairs of students writing computational essays in an intermediate physics course to examine how disciplinary computational literacy looks and is built at an undergraduate level. Through these case studies we see the pairs leveraging the different elements of their computational literacy to both engage with and produce computational literature in their discipline, while also engaging in a process of epistemic negotiation between their interests, the course goals, available tools, and their basis of computational literacy. These cases show how computational literacy can highlight the ways in which scientific computing helps students build disciplinary understanding and also shows that computational essays, as a genre of computational literature, are a useful epistemic form for developing computational literacy.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2024

Using Text Embeddings for Deductive Qualitative Research at Scale in Physics Education

We propose a technique for performing deductive qualitative data analysis at scale on text-based data. Using a natural language processing technique known as text embeddings, we create vector-based representations of texts in a high-dimensional meaning space within which it is possible to quantify differences as vector distances. To apply the technique, we build off prior work that used topic modeling via Latent Dirichlet Allocation to thematically analyze 18 years of the Physics Education Research Conference proceedings literature. We first extend this analysis through 2023. Next, we create embeddings of all texts and, using representative articles from the 10 topics found by the LDA analysis, define centroids in the meaning space. We calculate the distances between every article and centroid and use the inverted, scaled distances between these centroids and articles to create an alternate topic model. We benchmark this model against the LDA model results and show that this embeddings model recovers most of the trends from that analysis. Finally, to illustrate the versatility of the method we define 8 new topic centroids derived from a review of the physics education research literature by Docktor and Mestre (2014) and re-analyze the literature using these researcher-defined topics. Based on these analyses, we critically discuss the features, uses, and limitations of this method and argue that it holds promise for flexible deductive qualitative analysis of a wide variety of text-based data that avoids many of the drawbacks inherent to prior NLP methods.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2023

How do we assess computation in physics?

In recent years, computing has become an important part of the way we teach and learn physics. Teachers, both at high school and college levels, now use computational activities in many of their courses. Physics departments are offering specialized courses and degrees in computational physics. And many countries are adding programming or computational thinking to their secondary science education standards. Although we know more about how to teach computation, that's only half the picture; we need to know how to assess it. In this paper, we provide a snapshot of some commonly used assessment activities and forms.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2021

Using Computational Essays to Redistribute Epistemic Agency in Undergraduate Science

This article reports on a study investigating how computational essays can be used to redistribute epistemic agency--cognitive control and responsibility over one's own learning--to students in higher education STEM. Computational essays are a genre of scientific writing that combine live, executable computer code with narrative text to present a computational model or analysis. The study took place across two contrasting university contexts: an interdisciplinary data science and modeling course at Michigan State University, USA, and a third-semester physics course at the University of Oslo, Norway. Over the course of a semester, computational essays were simultaneously and independently used in both courses, and comparable datasets of student artifacts and retrospective interviews were collected from both student populations. These data were analyzed using a framework which operationalized the construct of epistemic agency across the dimensions of programming, inquiry, data analysis and modeling, and communication. Based on this analysis, we argue that computational essays can be a useful tool in redistributing epistemic agency to students within higher education science due to their combination of adaptability and disciplinary authenticity. However, we also argue that educational contexts, scaffolding, expectations, and student backgrounds can constrain and influence the ways in which students choose to take up epistemic agency.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2020

What does it mean to "make sense" of physics?

What does it mean to "make sense" of physics? It's not a simple question. Most people have an intuitive feeling for when things do (or do not) make sense to them. But, putting this feeling into words--especially actionable words--is another task entirely.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2020

Computational Essays in the Physics Classroom

Writing and argumentation are critical to both professional physics and physics education. However, the skill of making an extended argument in writing is often overlooked in physics classrooms, apart from certain practices like lab notebooks or mathematical proofs. Computation is also critical to both professional physics and, increasingly, physics education. In recent years we have begun to develop a class of assignment, known as a computational essay, to both leverage the creative affordances of computation and help students build their argumentative writing skills. Computational essays are a type of essay or report that combine text and code to express an idea or make an argument, usually written in notebook software. In this article, we describe the motivation and philosophy behind computational essays, as well as initial results from a pilot implementation in an introductory undergraduate electricity and magnetism course.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2020

Thematic Analysis of 18 Years of PERC Proceedings using Natural Language Processing

We have used an unsupervised machine learning method called Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to thematically analyze all papers published in the Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings between 2001 and 2018. By looking at co-occurrences of words across the data corpus, this technique has allowed us to identify ten distinct themes or "topics" that have seen varying levels of prevalence in Physics Education Research (PER) over time and to rate the distribution of these topics within each paper. Our analysis suggests that although all identified topics have seen sustained interest over time, PER has also seen several waves of increased interest in certain topics, beginning with initial interest in qualitative, theory-building studies of student understanding, which has given way to a focus on problem solving in the late 2010s. Since 2010 the field has seen a shift towards more sociocultural views of teaching and learning with a particular focus on communities of practice, student identities, and institutional change. Based on these results, we suggest that unsupervised text analysis techniques like LDA may hold promise for providing quantitative, independent, and replicable analyses of educational research literature.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2019

Physics Computational Literacy: An Exploratory Case Study Using Computational Essays

Computation is becoming an increasingly important part of physics education. However, there are currently few theories of learning that can be used to help explain and predict the unique challenges and affordances associated with computation in physics. In this study, we adapt the existing theory of computational literacy, which posits that computational learning can be divided into material, cognitive, and social aspects, to the context of undergraduate physics. Based on an exploratory study of undergraduate physics computational literacy, using a newly-developed teaching tool known as a computational essay, we have identified a variety of student practices, knowledge, and beliefs across these three aspects of computational literacy. We illustrate these categories with data collected from students who engaged in an initial implementation of computational essays in an introductory electricity and magnetism class. We conclude by arguing that this framework can be used to theoretically diagnose student difficulties with computation, distinguish educational approaches that focus on material vs. cognitive aspects of computational literacy, and highlight the benefits and limitations of open-ended projects like computational essays to student learning.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2019

Computational Essays: An Avenue for Scientific Creativity in Physics

Computation holds great potential for introducing new opportunities for creativity and exploration into the physics curriculum. At the University of Oslo we have begun development of a new class of assignment called computational essays to help facilitate creative, open-ended computational physics projects. Computational essays are a type of essay or narrative that combine text and code to express an idea or make an argument, usually written in computational notebooks. During a pilot implementation of computational essays in an introductory electricity and magnetism course, students reported that computational essays facilitated creative investigation at a variety of levels within their physics course. They also reported finding this creativity as being both challenging and motivating. Based on these reflections, we argue that computational essays are a useful tool for leveraging the creative affordances of programming in physics education.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2018

How computation can facilitate sensemaking about physics: A case study

We present a case study featuring a first-year bio-science university student using computation to solve a radioactive decay problem and interpret the results. In a semi-structured cognitive interview, we use this case to examine the process of sensemaking in a computational science context. We observe the student entering the sensemaking process by inspecting and comparing computational outputs. She then makes several attempts to resolve the perceived inconsistency, foregrounding knowledge from different domains. The key to making sense of the model for this student proves to be thinking about how to implement a better model computationally. This demonstrates that integrating computation in physics activities may provide students with opportunities to engage in sensemaking and critical thinking. We finally discuss some implications for instruction.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2018

Recurring questions that sustain the sensemaking frame

Many physics instructors aim to support student sensemaking in their classrooms. However, this can be challenging since instances of sensemaking tend to be short-lived, with students often defaulting to approaches based on answer-making or rote mathematical manipulation. In this study, we present evidence that specific recurring questions can serve a key role in the sensemaking process. Using a case-study of two students discussing an E&M thought experiment, we show how students' entry into sensemaking is marked by the articulation of a particular question, based on a perceived gap or inconsistency in understanding and how this question recurs throughout their subsequent explanations, arguing that these recurrences may serve to stabilize and extend the process.

physics.ed-ph↗