Vashti Sawtelle
Associate Professor of Physics Education | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
Vashti Sawtelle studies how learning environments support students from diverse backgrounds in their learning physics.
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Biography
Vashti Sawtelle is a physics education researcher who studies how learning environments support (or inhibit) students from diverse backgrounds in their learning physics. Co-director of the Physics Education Research Lab at MSU, she focuses her work on supporting community college transfer students to transition to the university, and understanding the role classroom environments have to play in creating supportive learning environments for all students. From the social context, her interests include understanding how students develop self-efficacy to do science, how that contributes to the development of science identities, and how those identities are related to issues of equity in the science community. She is particularly interested in supporting students who transition from two-year colleges to four-year universities to complete a bachelor's degree. In Lyman Briggs she teaches the introductory physics course which builds on her research in creating inclusive learning communities for students who are not necessarily physics majors.
Industry Expertise (1)
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (2)
Physics Education
Higher Educaiton
Accomplishments (3)
Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year (professional)
2022
Michigan State University Spirit of Ability Award (professional)
2019
Michigan State University Teacher-Scholar Award (professional)
2018
Education (2)
Florida International University: Ph.D., Physics Education 2011
Grinnell College: B.A., Physics 2006
Affiliations (4)
- National Association of Research in Science Teaching
- International Society of the Learning Sciences
- American Association of Physics Teachers
- American Physical Society
Links (2)
News (1)
Faculty voice: Two selves
MSU Today online
2020-10-27
Vashti Sawtelle is an associate professor in Lyman Briggs College. She is a physics education researcher who studies how learning environments support (or inhibit) students from diverse backgrounds in their learning physics. [...] What did I anticipate from a college degree? I’m not sure I remember. I had this vague sense that it was the way out of a life that didn’t seem like it fit me. I knew I didn’t want to spend my life asking which bill I wouldn’t pay this month or scrambling when an appliance broke.
Event Appearances (3)
Transfer Student’s Narrative of Groupwork Characterized by Research Methods Course
2020 | AAPT National Meeting Virtual Conference
Coding Students’ Statements of Science Degree and Transfer Self-Efficacy
2020 | AAPT National Meeting Virtual Conference
An Investigation of Degree Pathways for Students of Color with Transfer Credits.
2020 |Physics Education Research Conference Virtual Conference
Journal Articles (3)
Narrative Analysis of a Woman’s Experience Transferring from a TYC Reveals Impact of Supporting Characters
CBE—Life Sciences Education2022 In this paper, we use narrative analysis to examine the case study of “Nicole” (pseudonym), a student in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program who transferred from a 2-year college (TYC) to a 4-year college (FYC). We draw from longitudinal qualitative data that follow Nicole’s experience pre- and posttransfer, while acknowledging the impact of her experience at the TYC. We use an anti-deficit lens by highlighting the role of supporting characters for Nicole, especially at the TYC. Narrative analysis of Nicole’s experiences highlights differences in her sense of community at the two different institutions. Organizing our data in these narrative components revealed how impactful supporting characters are in Nicole’s story and how drastically they can shape the outcome of scenes in her story. Instructors and programmatic staff at FYCs who aim to better support transfer students in their transition can learn from the kinds of scenes Nicole cited as helpful in her time at the TYC as well as the FYC. It is our aim in sharing Nicole’s story to provide guidelines for how faculty and program directors could be impactful supporting characters to create welcoming settings for transfer students.
Gender & Self-Efficacy: A Call to Physics Educators
The Physics Teacher2020 Many students across the United States enter college with aspirations of becoming a successful career scientist within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in physics has significantly lagged behind the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the other STEM disciplines. Of the physics bachelor’s degrees awarded nationally in 2014, only 20% were conferred to women. As a part of the conversation on recruitment, retention, and diversity in physics, researchers have focused on students’ self-efficacy (SE), or one’s personal beliefs in their capabilities to execute a specific task. Self-efficacy is highly correlated with performance and success, career aspirations, and student persistence, particularly in physics. In addition, many studies have shown that men and women evaluate their science SE differently with women, on average, reporting a lower SE toward science. This article will provide a robust literature review about the research reporting on the gender differences in science SE, specifically within the physics discipline. We will highlight common resources educators can use to measure students’ SE in their own physics classrooms, the standard findings that SE decreases in introductory physics courses but not in other science courses, and within physics the decreases tend to be larger for female students.
Productive faculty resources activated by curricular materials: An example of epistemological beliefs in University Modeling Instruction
Physical Review Physics Education Research2020 [This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] When disseminating curricula, typically only the physical curriculum materials are transferred from the instructor to another. However, left as artifacts in the curricula are a set of epistemological beliefs held by the creators and designers of the materials. These epistemological beliefs are often underpinning the activity structures and strongly influence how the curriculum materials are implemented in the classroom, particularly when those beliefs differ from those activated by the instructor. In this paper, we articulate three epistemological beliefs that are built into the University Modeling Instruction curriculum that are essential for running the large-group discussions, which are a crucial part of the curriculum. We highlight how these beliefs are built into the student-facing and instructor-facing curricular materials and the influence of these beliefs in the interpretation and implementation of the curriculum materials. Finally, we discuss the implications on curriculum dissemination, on the adoption and adaptation of curriculum materials, and training models for instructors beyond the curriculum designers.
