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

TL;DR

This study explores how integrating computation into physics education influences students' self-perceptions and identity, using narrative analysis and conjecture mapping to understand divergent affective outcomes.

Contribution

It introduces a modified conjecture mapping approach combined with narrative analysis to visualize and understand students' affective and identity development in computational physics.

Findings

Different interpretations of activity design affect self-perception.

Engagement with scaffolding shapes students' physics identity.

Epistemic framing of code influences affective outcomes.

Abstract

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.