Structuring Group Work for Equitable Role Distribution in Labs

Throughout physics lab courses, students are expected to gain experience with various tasks such as note-taking, data analysis, equipment usage, and group management. Previous research, however, has found gendered differences in task division in introductory physics lab courses, with such differences exacerbated in less structured lab courses. More recent work suggests that implementing partner agreements can mitigate these disparities in courses with groups that change throughout the semester. Building on preliminary findings that indicated remote labs with instructor-formed groups fixed throughout the semester alleviated inequities, we investigated the effects of different group work structures on gendered role-taking in an introductory, skills-based lab course. Over three semesters, we conducted observations throughout the entire semester utilizing a codebook implemented in previous studies. We compared three lab conditions: in-person sessions with weekly random student-formed groups, remote sessions with semester-long instructor-formed groups, and in-person sessions with semester-long instructor-formed groups. This work aims to provide instructors additional ways to structure lab group work to remedy inequities.