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In introductory physics laboratory instruction, students often expect to confirm or demonstrate textbook physics concepts. This expectation is largely undesirable: labs that emphasize confirmation of textbook physics concepts are generally unsuccessful at teaching those concepts and even in contexts that do not emphasize confirmation, such expectations can lead to students disregarding or manipulating their data in order to obtain the expected result. In other words, when students expect their lab activities to confirm a known result, they may relinquish epistemic agency and violate disciplinary practices. We present a contrasting case where, we claim, confirmatory expectations can actually support productive disciplinary engagement. In this case study, we analyze the complex dynamics of students’ epistemological framing in a lab where students’ confirmatory expectations support and even generate epistemic agency and disciplinary practices, including developing original ideas, measures, and apparatuses to apply to the material world. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

New physics and astronomy faculty are excited about active teaching, but they still need support to implement the ideas in their classes. 

IntroductionResearch-based instructional strategies in physics promote active participation in collaborative activities as a primary means for students to construct understanding. Discussions of physics content are also negotiations of social relations. MethodsVideo analysis of small-group collaborative learning activities in introductory physics classrooms at three different universities, using situated learning theory analyses that include a critical consciousness lens. ResultsStudents’ ability to actively participate in sensemaking may be limited by their peripheral or marginalized position. Some people seem to be centered (or marginalized) for reasons other than the strength of their physics reasoning, and some people’s contributions are elevated (or neglected) for reasons other than their scientific merit. DiscussionSome of the behavioral patterns that we observe typify racialized and gendered interactions that are common in broader U.S. society.