Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2174-1874

Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Committee Chair

John Stewart

Committee Member

Gay Stewart

Committee Member

Edward Flagg

Committee Member

Matthew Campbell

Abstract

Retention of students in college has been a concern of academic institutions for many years. In the last two decades, the focus on student retention in STEM fields has intensified. The current graduation rate of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields is well below that required to fill the projected need of STEM professionals. The work presented in this dissertation investigates the problem of student retention in physics programs. Four studies were performed. The first identifies the relationships between student retention and pre-college and early-college academic factors at an eastern U.S. university using logistic regression and Bayesian networks. The second uses Bayesian networks to predict the outcomes of physics course grades, using prior physics and math course grades as evidence, to assist academic advisors and physics departments as they help students progress through their physics curriculum. The third part investigates the complexity of physics curricula at 60 U.S. institutions using Curricular Analytics and compares the differences in complexity of programs with different national rankings. The final part evaluates a common physics conceptual assessment to determine the structure of knowledge the assessment measures; assessments that accurately measure student knowledge in physics are essential in designing courses and programs that successfully train future STEM professionals.

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