Building more inclusive educational environments in physics: understanding and addressing social-psychological factors to support learners

While physics education research efforts have made great strides in developing programs and activities that enhance students’ mastery of physics concepts and practices, we are now beginning to attend more systematically to the study and development of identities and inclusion in physics. In studies designed to document and address the dramatic differences in participation and performance of women in college physics, we document a variety of gender gaps: participation, performance and expectations of learning. In studies of participation, we find sense belonging to play an essential role for women in our early undergraduate courses; in performance measures, we find social-psychological factors to differentially impact outcomes for men and women. We present studies of interventions that address both participation and performance, and recommendations for more inclusive educational practices. Time permitting, we will examine models for systemic change to create more inclusive environments.