Who Gets Helped? The Opportunity Structure of the College Physics Classroom, Peer Instruction, and Perceptions of Help Seeking

Abstract

Although peer interaction in the college classroom may benefit some students by developing peer networks for future collaborations, prior research has suggested that these relationships most often benefit students from overrepresented communities, while minoritized student populations may gain less from these experiences. In this article, we explore the opportunity structure in a physics course to identify differences in perception of classroom community among students. Using multinomial logistic regression (n = 551), initial findings suggest that students who collaborated had higher odds of identifying their relationships as equally beneficial. Among those who perceived differences in their relationships, White students were more likely to report they received help, and minoritzed students were more likely to report providing help, especially when they worked in homophilous pairs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Brown

Michael Brown ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the School of Education at Iowa State University in Ames. At the time this article was written,

Robert M. DeMonbrun

Robert M. DeMonbrun was a doctoral student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.