United States

Educational evaluation is of great importance to teaching and the development of students. This paper will give some testees a survey of college physics-optics, using 2PL and 3PL of Item Response Theory to analyze and providing thoughts on optimizing the system of learning and teaching. The result shows that advanced ability oriented questions fit well with inspecting and ability building, and fill-in-the-blank test has a higher priority over multiple-choice question. Students are commonly short of advanced ability, and they should focus on the development of intermediate ability and make progress steadily. Teachers should pay attention to complex concepts, trying to lead students and innovate teaching method. Students should emphasize habit training and develop correct overlooks on the world, life and values.

AAPT WM 22

Study on attainment of learning-objectives and practical-effects in introductory-physics course

project parameter

ability

physics education research

item response theory

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


AAPT SM 20

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. 

poster

This meeting is a great opportunity to explore sessions and workshops designed with your professional development in mind. Present your research and exchange ideas on the latest in teaching and pedagogy. Participate in a wide range of events, activities, plenaries, and so much more, connecting you with peers and colleagues who share your commitment to excellence in physics education.

Since Fall 2019, our team has been in the process of reforming our introductory physics courses using the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach. This, alongside the pandemic which required all courses to be held entirely online for one year, has required us to revise our curricular materials multiple times over the past several years. In this talk we will share some of the strategies we have learned both for developing materials which encourage students to actively participate in their own learning and for creating materials which can be used authentically by any member of the teaching team.

Balancing consistency and authenticity: Lessons learned designing reformed curricular materials

The well documented deficit of physics graduates pursuing education as a career has led to a significant number of high school teachers with little to no background in the discipline, which can result in reduced impact in the classroom. The Mitchell Institute Physics Enhancement Program (MIPEP) was founded in 2012 to address such problems through targeting out-of-field high school physics teachers. MIPEP participants work with Texas University faculty and two master teachers over a two week period, focusing on both subject comprehension and pedagogy for implementation. Here we examine the impact of the virtual version of MIPEP on the 2021 cohort. Participant pre- and post-program knowledge and confidence were measured using an assessment compiled of questions from mechanics, electricity and magnetism, optics, and modern physics. Analysis of our data will be shown, which may encourage other institutions to create similar programs.

Improving Out-Of-Field Preparation for High School Physics Teachers

Since Fall 2019 we have been reforming both our algebra and calculus-based introductory physics courses with the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach. As expected, each academic year, students are initially resistant to the approach. In this talk we will discuss specifics of the resistance to ISLE expressed by students in our calculus based introductory physics course and the quantitative effects of "pep talks" and institutional change sessions. We will also explore possible improvements to our implementation of the ISLE approach to mitigate resistance particularly from students who have already encountered non-ISLE physics.

Overcoming student resistance to active learning during an ISLE-based reform

In Fall 2019 we reformed all of our introductory physics courses with the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach. In this approach, students build physics knowledge by doing science. We used ISLE-based materials to write a curriculum and have made structural changes to support it. The curriculum is taught by a team of 10 instructors (full time faculty, part time lecturers, and graduate TAs) with the help of 10 undergraduate Learning Assistants (LAs). All instructors and LAs attend a pre-semester workshop and weekly prep meetings. Three years into our reform, the curriculum and instructional team has become the “new normal.” 450 students enroll in our courses each semester. The big goal driving our reform is to teach students to think like scientists. We present data showing success and areas of improvement.

The New Normal: Three years into our ISLE-based reform

Universities use instructors with varying levels of physics expertise for undergraduate physics instruction, including faculty members, graduate teaching assistants, and undergraduate learning assistants. This study examines the effects of instructor type on students’ ratings of explanation quality. We collected written explanations to common introductory physics questions from highly recommended instructors of each type. Students enrolled in an introductory physics course made pairwise comparisons of the written explanations until a rank order could be generated for each participant. We determined if instructor type could determine placement in a student’s rank order using ordinal regression. Using a relative placement algorithm, we extracted a general rank order for the explanations that reflects consensus; opinion; on the relative quality of the explanations. We present the results as a commentary on the relative effectiveness of different instructor types on providing explanations that students perceive as good explanations.

Comparing perceived explanation quality between different instructor types

Calculus-based introductory physics classes are prerequisite courses for many STEM majors and traditionally have a large attrition rate. One way to improve student learning outcomes is by creating open access supplemental materials. In this study, we investigated the relation between use of supplemental materials and student performance in a calculus-based introductory electromagnetism course. The resources examined in this study included video resources, summarizing important concepts, showing example problems, and covering in-depth problem-solving techniques, as well as prior year's exams. We analyzed student scores from the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment, exam scores, and student responses to anonymous surveys. We will present results of student performance for more than 600 students enrolled in a fall 2021 semester based on their use of available supplemental resources.

Impact of supplemental resources on student outcomes in introductory E&M.

Dual Process Theories of Reasoning (DPTOR) state that cognition has two major processes: a fast, automatic process (heuristic) and a slow, reflective process (analytic). Many introductory physics students use the heuristic that acceleration and velocity are the same thing. In a Conceptual Physics class, multiple choice questions on free fall were preceded by multiple choice “check” questions - one on forces in free fall, and one on Newton’s 2nd Law. This work refines a pilot study using more complex knowledge statements. That data suggested that the inclusion of the knowledge statements served as a productive intervention for engaging the analytic process, but the pattern of answers suggested that the knowledge statements were ambiguous. Student responses to check questions were more consistent than knowledge statements with similar performance on the free-fall questions. 80% of the students who answered the check questions correctly also answered all the free-fall questions correctly.

Refining an Intervention to Prompt Reflective Thinking

A successful research team and project require the participants to apply a diverse set of skills and habits. However, in the traditional training experience early-career researchers typically do not learn these elements until they are already in the midst of a research activity. In collaboration with the Fermilab Quarknet high-school research internship program, we developed a pilot research curriculum to help prepare the students with essential research skills. In this curriculum, we discuss how to come up with research topics, how to read scientific papers, how to approach the research process and provide training sessions for research communications. For this presentation, we will describe our goals for developing this program, and how we carried out our pilot in the summer of 2021, and plans for evaluating and updating the program.

SHIRE: A Skills-Focused Curriculum for New Researchers

Physics students can enjoy learning soft skills that will be useful for future professional careers. Enhancing soft skills will help physics students to have successful careers. We would like to explore the possibilities to embed emotional intelligence into physics classrooms.

Embedding Emotional Intelligence into Physics Education

This research focuses on data collected from Canvas on grades, participation, page views and student activity with the course material from one synchronous section and one asynchronous section of an introductory astronomy course. The course was participation based with chapter quizzes, tutorials, tutorial quizzes and written assignments. No exams were given. The analysis of the correlation between participation per week and grades per week was made, showing that engagement with the course material and canvas did not impact grades. There was no established relationship made. Students that interacted the most or the least, still received grades that were scattered. For the synchronous and asynchronous sections, as the semester progressed, the average page views decreased. However, when studying the average participation per week, the synchronous class had no specific correlation but the asynchronous section had a steady, linear increase.

Study on attainment of learning-objectives and practical-effects in introductory-physics course

Next from AAPT WM 22

Balancing consistency and authenticity: Lessons learned designing reformed curricular materials

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Investigating the role of cognitive reflection in following reasoning chains*

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