Related papers: Academic Miscommunication in Physics
The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism (E&M) courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA). Two different curricula were…
This manuscript was originally submitted to Nature for consideration as a "Brief Communication" in response to a "Corrigendum" that appeared in 2006 (1) to an earlier paper in Nature. That corrigendum was the subject of a Nature editorial…
One partner says "Fine" meaning "resolution"; the other hears "surrender." The word is shared; the affective uptake is not. We formalize this as affective meaning divergence (AMD), the total-variation distance between interlocutors'…
Development of conceptual multiple-choice tests related to a particular physics topic is important for designing research-based learning tools to reduce the difficulties. We explore the difficulties that the advanced undergraduate and…
Finding general evaluation metrics for unsupervised representation learning techniques is a challenging open research question, which recently has become more and more necessary due to the increasing interest in unsupervised methods. Even…
During multiple testing, researchers often adjust their alpha level to control the familywise error rate for a statistical inference about a joint union alternative hypothesis (e.g., "H1,1 or H1,2"). However, in some cases, they do not make…
Robust and effective scaling of models from small to large width typically requires the precise adjustment of many algorithmic and architectural details, such as parameterization and optimizer choices. In this work, we propose a new…
The effect of class size on student learning has numerous policy implications and has been a major subject of conversation and research for decades. Despite this, few studies have been done on class size in the context of university…
The friendship paradox -- the observation that, on average, one's friends have more friends than oneself -- admits two common formulations depending on whether averaging is performed over edges or over nodes. These two definitions, the…
Several reports in education have called for transforming physics learning environments by promoting sensemaking of real-world scenarios in light of curricular ideas. Recent advancements in Generative-Artificial Intelligence has garnered…
We administer 45 validated psychometric questionnaires to 50 large language models (LLMs) to identify the dimensions along which LLMs differ psychometrically. Using Supervised Semantic Differential (SSD), we find that the primary axis of…
Autoregressive language models (ARMs) suffer from the reversal curse: after learning ''$A$ is $B$,'' they often fail on the reverse query ''$B$ is $A$.'' Masked diffusion language models (MDMs) exhibit this failure in a much weaker form,…
This paper explores using large isomorphic problem banks to overcome many challenges of traditional exams in large STEM classes, especially the threat of content sharing websites and generative AI to the security of exam items. We first…
Physics faculty care about their students learning physics content. In addition, they usually hope that their students will learn some deeper lessons about thinking critically and scientifically. They hope that as a result of taking a…
This paper introduces AMMORE, a new dataset of 53,000 math open-response question-answer pairs from Rori, a learning platform used by students in several African countries and conducts two experiments to evaluate the use of large language…
Students face diverse pathways as they journey through undergraduate study. The analysis of student course records can untangle common patterns in course progression, and identify group trends in student outcomes. The current work examines…
The search for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) at collider experiments requires model-independent strategies to avoid missing possible discoveries of unexpected signals. Anomaly detection (AD) techniques offer a promising approach…
Students in inquiry science classrooms face an essential tension between sharing new ideas and critically evaluating those ideas. Both sides of this tension pose affective risks that can discourage further discussion, such as the…
In this paper, a mathematical framework for the analysis of average symbol error probability (ASEP) in millimeter wave (mmWave) cellular networks with Poisson Point Process (PPP) distributed base stations (BSs) is developed using tools from…
Active learning strategies have been widely recognised for their effectiveness in tertiary education, yet their implementation at scale, particularly in large first-year mathematics courses, presents considerable challenges. A common method…