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WWU’s Thanh Lê secures $544k NSF grant to study how to improve student collaboration in physics learning

by Mikayla King

WWU Communications

WWU Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy Thanh Lê has secured a $544,700 National Science Foundation grant to study how physics teachers can encourage collaboration and teamwork within students. 

WWU Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy and SMATE Thanh Lê

The grant, “Collaborative Research: Fostering Teamwork in the Context of Learning Physics through Socio-Metacognition and Engaged Student Learning,” will aim to teach students how to communicate and support each other for more effective learning. 

The study will use five coordinated activities to explore how instruction focused on teamwork impacts student group dynamics: reading, case-study analysis, composing a team charter, reflecting on classroom experience and action planning.  These activities will take place in three physics courses at WWU and California State University at Chico. 

Lê, who works in the Department of Physics & Astronomy as well as Science, Math and Technology Education (SMATE), will partner with fellow WWU Physics & Astronomy Professor Andrew Boudreaux and colleagues Jayson Nissen of Montana State University and Carolina Alvarado of CSU Chico.

Lê is hoping to answer:

  • How well do students understand what effective teamwork looks like before and after the teamwork instruction?
  • How often do students use productive teamwork behaviors, and does teamwork instruction help them use these skills more consistently?
  • Does teamwork instruction improve students' attitudes toward teamwork?
  • How do students navigate group dynamics during moments of confusion, and does this improve with teamwork instruction?

“Physics classrooms often have students work in small groups, but we don’t always teach the teamwork skills that help those groups function well,” Lê said. “When confusion or disagreement comes up, as it inevitably does in group work, students may struggle to work together productively. Our project helps students develop teamwork skills so they can communicate, support one another and make sense of the physics together.”

Collaboration often supports individual learning outcomes, Lê said. When students work together, they build a collective understanding. Shared effort encourages students to explore ideas, questions, explanations and insights that deepen and enrich the entire group’s understanding.

“We already integrate a lot of group activities into our physics courses, and we often provide structures to guide students through the content. But structure alone doesn’t teach the teamwork skills students need to work together effectively,” Lê said. “If we want students to collaborate well, we have to treat those skills as learning outcomes in their own right, not as something they might pick up incidentally. This project helps us move from simply organizing group work to intentionally teaching the skills that make collaboration more meaningful and effective.”

The research team will also conduct faculty workshops to share instructional materials, gather feedback and support the adoption of teamwork instruction in STEM classrooms. 

Learn more about researching happening in Physics & Astronomy at https://physics.wwu.edu/ and in SMATE at https://smate.wwu.edu/ 

Mikayla King (‘17) covers the College of Science and Engineering and Woodring College of Education for University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at kingm24@wwu.edu.