Pub Date : 2023-12-26DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020169
Florian Budimaier, Martin Hopf
When learning about the particulate nature of matter (PNM), students tend to attribute the same properties to both particles and to the substances they compose. It has been argued that this might be explained by them categorizing the wrong ontological category. To explain the relationships between submicroscopic and macroscopic levels of matter, students need to understand the concept of emergence. Building on prior work, the authors propose that crystal structures might be a suitable context for the introduction of the PNM. As there is a close connection between the behavior of the particles and the properties of crystals, students can learn the concept of emergence and therefore gain a deeper understanding of the PNM. This study investigates students’ learning about the PNM within the context of crystal structures following the methodological framework of design-based research. The aim of the study is the development of a prototypical teaching-learning sequence (TLS) on the PNM and to help developing local theories for teaching that subject. Throughout several cycles of designing and refining the TLS, a total of 40 interviews were conducted using the method of probing acceptance. Evaluative qualitative content analysis led to new insights into students’ thinking about the PNM and allowed for further development of the TLS. For example, we found that salt and snow crystals were a more effective learning context than a scanning tunnel microscopy image of graphite for students to come to understand the connection between macroscopic and submicroscopic levels of matter.
{"title":"Development of a new teaching-learning sequence on the particulate nature of matter using crystal structures","authors":"Florian Budimaier, Martin Hopf","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020169","url":null,"abstract":"When learning about the particulate nature of matter (PNM), students tend to attribute the same properties to both particles and to the substances they compose. It has been argued that this might be explained by them categorizing the wrong ontological category. To explain the relationships between submicroscopic and macroscopic levels of matter, students need to understand the concept of emergence. Building on prior work, the authors propose that crystal structures might be a suitable context for the introduction of the PNM. As there is a close connection between the behavior of the particles and the properties of crystals, students can learn the concept of emergence and therefore gain a deeper understanding of the PNM. This study investigates students’ learning about the PNM within the context of crystal structures following the methodological framework of design-based research. The aim of the study is the development of a prototypical teaching-learning sequence (TLS) on the PNM and to help developing local theories for teaching that subject. Throughout several cycles of designing and refining the TLS, a total of 40 interviews were conducted using the method of probing acceptance. Evaluative qualitative content analysis led to new insights into students’ thinking about the PNM and allowed for further development of the TLS. For example, we found that salt and snow crystals were a more effective learning context than a scanning tunnel microscopy image of graphite for students to come to understand the connection between macroscopic and submicroscopic levels of matter.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139053655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020168
Jason M. May
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Physics instructional labs have long been an area of pedagogical innovation and educational research. While current stakeholders in instructional labs are undoubtedly aware of the day’s concerns, reform efforts, and empirical research within lab settings, likely less apparent are the deep-rooted connections today’s deliberations have with those from multiple educational eras across the last 200 years. To this end, this paper provides a historical analysis of instructional laboratories in undergraduate physics education in the United States, with the goal of elucidating recurring themes in educational reform and research aimed at improving these learning environments. This work aims to synthesize the recursive themes present in the instructional laboratory landscape while summarizing how new research and pedagogical trends can promote further growth in this important learning environment. Through this analysis, commonly recurring themes are identified related to the longitudinal criticism of confirmatory, “cookbook” lab structures, the community’s skepticism of instructional labs’ abilities to reinforce lecture content, and the possibility of technological and societal obstructions which may implicitly limit innovative ideas, pedagogy, and research. By bringing to light these latent recursive themes, this work hopes to work toward helping break the cycle of criticism and stifled innovation alongside recent positive movements in evidence-based reforms and promising empirical research into student learning and engagement in instructional labs.
{"title":"Historical analysis of innovation and research in physics instructional laboratories: Recurring themes and future directions","authors":"Jason M. May","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020168","url":null,"abstract":"[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Physics instructional labs have long been an area of pedagogical innovation and educational research. While current stakeholders in instructional labs are undoubtedly aware of the day’s concerns, reform efforts, and empirical research within lab settings, likely less apparent are the deep-rooted connections today’s deliberations have with those from multiple educational eras across the last 200 years. To this end, this paper provides a historical analysis of instructional laboratories in undergraduate physics education in the United States, with the goal of elucidating recurring themes in educational reform and research aimed at improving these learning environments. This work aims to synthesize the recursive themes present in the instructional laboratory landscape while summarizing how new research and pedagogical trends can promote further growth in this important learning environment. Through this analysis, commonly recurring themes are identified related to the longitudinal criticism of confirmatory, “cookbook” lab structures, the community’s skepticism of instructional labs’ abilities to reinforce lecture content, and the possibility of technological and societal obstructions which may implicitly limit innovative ideas, pedagogy, and research. By bringing to light these latent recursive themes, this work hopes to work toward helping break the cycle of criticism and stifled innovation alongside recent positive movements in evidence-based reforms and promising empirical research into student learning and engagement in instructional labs.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138823818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-15DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020166
Danielle Buggé
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] National organizations set goals of engaging students in experimentation and authentic scientific reasoning while developing normative concepts to help them develop essential skills and competencies necessary to succeed in our rapidly changing world. One framework that meets these goals is the investigative science learning environment (ISLE) approach to teaching and learning physics. While studies have been conducted on student development of scientific abilities in ISLE-based classrooms, little is known about how formative assessment helps promote student growth in this setting. This paper presents on the findings from an empirical study on how the revision of written laboratory reports positively impacts first-year high school student development of scientific abilities in an ISLE-approach classroom. We argue that the opportunity to revise written work provides students with additional exposures that are necessary to support their scientific ability development. Furthermore, we explore positive correlations between student involvement in the collaborative writing process and attitudes regarding experimental physics.
{"title":"Improving scientific abilities through lab report revision in a high school investigative science learning environment classroom","authors":"Danielle Buggé","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020166","url":null,"abstract":"[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] National organizations set goals of engaging students in experimentation and authentic scientific reasoning while developing normative concepts to help them develop essential skills and competencies necessary to succeed in our rapidly changing world. One framework that meets these goals is the investigative science learning environment (ISLE) approach to teaching and learning physics. While studies have been conducted on student development of scientific abilities in ISLE-based classrooms, little is known about how formative assessment helps promote student growth in this setting. This paper presents on the findings from an empirical study on how the revision of written laboratory reports positively impacts first-year high school student development of scientific abilities in an ISLE-approach classroom. We argue that the opportunity to revise written work provides students with additional exposures that are necessary to support their scientific ability development. Furthermore, we explore positive correlations between student involvement in the collaborative writing process and attitudes regarding experimental physics.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138823990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial: Call for Papers for Focused Collection ofPhysical Review Physics Education Research: AI Tools in Physics Teaching and PER","authors":"Charles Henderson","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020003","url":null,"abstract":"<span>DOI:</span><span>https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020003</span>","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138691472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-07DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020165
Philipp Bitzenbauer, Sarah Navarrete, Fabian Hennig, Malte S. Ubben, Joaquin M. Veith
Research in astronomy education has uncovered that many learners possess limited and fragmented understanding of stars. The corresponding misconceptions manifest in various areas such as star formation, size, the relationship between stars and planets, and their position in space and have been shown to persist across different age groups and educational settings, highlighting the need for further investigation. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study that examines secondary students’ views of stars and their evolution throughout their secondary school education. We designed and evaluated an instrument for assessing students’ views of stars in five domains (stars and the solar system, formation and evolution of stars, general properties and motion of stars, (sub-)stellar objects, as well as color and brightness). The instrument creation process involved several steps, including literature-based item development, an expert survey with faculty members, and a quantitative pilot study with a sample of secondary school and college students. This process led to a final version of the instrument that exhibits good psychometric properties. We used this new instrument in a cross-age study to investigate the alignment of secondary students’ ideas about stars with scientific views across different stages of secondary education. The sample of this main study comprised a total of learners, including 148 lower (aged 13–14 years), 151 middle (aged 15–16 years), and 67 upper (aged 17–18 years) secondary school students. Our study findings reveal a progressive development of students’ perspectives on star-related topics throughout their school education: Using analyses of variance and conducting pairwise post hoc comparisons, we observed a statistically significant increase in the proportion of responses aligning with scientific views across all aspects of stars examined in this study, as students progressed from lower secondary to upper secondary levels. We further report on widely held views of stars among our study participants that do not align with the scientific views and discuss the implications of our findings for both educational research and practice.
{"title":"Cross-age study on secondary school students’ views of stars","authors":"Philipp Bitzenbauer, Sarah Navarrete, Fabian Hennig, Malte S. Ubben, Joaquin M. Veith","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020165","url":null,"abstract":"Research in astronomy education has uncovered that many learners possess limited and fragmented understanding of stars. The corresponding misconceptions manifest in various areas such as star formation, size, the relationship between stars and planets, and their position in space and have been shown to persist across different age groups and educational settings, highlighting the need for further investigation. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study that examines secondary students’ views of stars and their evolution throughout their secondary school education. We designed and evaluated an instrument for assessing students’ views of stars in five domains (stars and the solar system, formation and evolution of stars, general properties and motion of stars, (sub-)stellar objects, as well as color and brightness). The instrument creation process involved several steps, including literature-based item development, an expert survey with faculty members, and a quantitative pilot study with a sample of <math display=\"inline\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>390</mn></math> secondary school and college students. This process led to a final version of the instrument that exhibits good psychometric properties. We used this new instrument in a cross-age study to investigate the alignment of secondary students’ ideas about stars with scientific views across different stages of secondary education. The sample of this main study comprised a total of <math display=\"inline\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>366</mn></math> learners, including 148 lower (aged 13–14 years), 151 middle (aged 15–16 years), and 67 upper (aged 17–18 years) secondary school students. Our study findings reveal a progressive development of students’ perspectives on star-related topics throughout their school education: Using analyses of variance and conducting pairwise <i>post hoc</i> comparisons, we observed a statistically significant increase in the proportion of responses aligning with scientific views across all aspects of stars examined in this study, as students progressed from lower secondary to upper secondary levels. We further report on widely held views of stars among our study participants that do not align with the scientific views and discuss the implications of our findings for both educational research and practice.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138569591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-06DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.028001
M. B. Weissman
A recent paper evaluating a new rubric-based graduate admissions approach using generic methods tentatively suggested that its decisions differed noticeably from the previous approach in an unspecified way. Using prior knowledge that the often-stated specific goal was to open a path to increased diversity by reducing barriers to the admission of applicants with low undergraduate grade point averages and graduate record exam (GRE) scores allows simple statistical tests of changes in the distributions of the metrics. The simple tests confirm with good statistical confidence that the barrier-reduction changes were achieved. Nevertheless, the paper’s argument that the de-emphasized tests and grades are not predictive of graduate outcomes is not supported by the prior literature. On technique, although a method used in some of the analyses for dropping data points before running the machine algorithm is likely to bias those results, it helps to clarify why models of the rubric-based system were only weakly predictive.
{"title":"Comment on “Rubric-based holistic review represents a change from traditional graduate admissions approaches in physics”","authors":"M. B. Weissman","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.028001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.028001","url":null,"abstract":"A recent paper evaluating a new rubric-based graduate admissions approach using generic methods tentatively suggested that its decisions differed noticeably from the previous approach in an unspecified way. Using prior knowledge that the often-stated specific goal was to open a path to increased diversity by reducing barriers to the admission of applicants with low undergraduate grade point averages and graduate record exam (GRE) scores allows simple statistical tests of changes in the distributions of the metrics. The simple tests confirm with good statistical confidence that the barrier-reduction changes were achieved. Nevertheless, the paper’s argument that the de-emphasized tests and grades are not predictive of graduate outcomes is not supported by the prior literature. On technique, although a method used in some of the analyses for dropping data points before running the machine algorithm is likely to bias those results, it helps to clarify why models of the rubric-based system were only weakly predictive.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138547128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020164
R. Freed, D. H. McKinnon, M. T. Fitzgerald, S. Salimpour
This paper presents the results of a confirmatory factor analysis on two self-efficacy scales designed to probe the self-efficacy of college-level introductory astronomy (Astro-101) students () from 22 institutions across the United States of America and Canada. The students undertook a course based on similar curriculum materials, which involved students using robotic telescopes to support their learning of astronomical concepts covered in the “traditional” Astro-101 courses. Previous research by the authors using these self-efficacy scales within a pre-/post-test approach showed both high reliabilities and very high construct validities. However, the scale purporting to measure students’ self-efficacy in relation to their use of the astronomical instrumentation associated with online robotic telescopes was particularly skewed and required further investigation. This current study builds on the previous work and shows how a slight adjustment of the survey items presents an improved and robust scale for measuring self-efficacy.
{"title":"Confirmatory factor analysis of two self-efficacy scales for astronomy understanding and robotic telescope use","authors":"R. Freed, D. H. McKinnon, M. T. Fitzgerald, S. Salimpour","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020164","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents the results of a confirmatory factor analysis on two self-efficacy scales designed to probe the self-efficacy of college-level introductory astronomy (Astro-101) students (<math display=\"inline\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"><mrow><mi>n</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn><mn>5</mn><mn>1</mn><mn>8</mn><mn>1</mn></mrow></math>) from 22 institutions across the United States of America and Canada. The students undertook a course based on similar curriculum materials, which involved students using robotic telescopes to support their learning of astronomical concepts covered in the “traditional” Astro-101 courses. Previous research by the authors using these self-efficacy scales within a pre-/post-test approach showed both high reliabilities and very high construct validities. However, the scale purporting to measure students’ self-efficacy in relation to their use of the astronomical instrumentation associated with online robotic telescopes was particularly skewed and required further investigation. This current study builds on the previous work and shows how a slight adjustment of the survey items presents an improved and robust scale for measuring self-efficacy.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138533753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-29DOI: 10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020163
Gerd Kortemeyer
Solving problems is crucial for learning physics, and not only final solutions but also their derivations are important. Grading these derivations is labor intensive, as it generally involves human evaluation of handwritten work. AI tools have not been an alternative, since even for short answers, they needed specific training for each problem or set of problems. Extensively pretrained AI systems offer a potentially universal grading solution without this specific training. This feasibility study explores an AI-assisted workflow to grade handwritten physics derivations using MathPix and GPT-4. We were able to successfully scan handwritten solution paths and achieved an R-squared of 0.84 compared to human graders on a synthetic dataset. The proposed workflow appears promising for formative feedback, but for final evaluations, it would best be used to assist human graders.
{"title":"Toward AI grading of student problem solutions in introductory physics: A feasibility study","authors":"Gerd Kortemeyer","doi":"10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevphyseducres.19.020163","url":null,"abstract":"Solving problems is crucial for learning physics, and not only final solutions but also their derivations are important. Grading these derivations is labor intensive, as it generally involves human evaluation of handwritten work. AI tools have not been an alternative, since even for short answers, they needed specific training for each problem or set of problems. Extensively pretrained AI systems offer a potentially universal grading solution without this specific training. This feasibility study explores an AI-assisted workflow to grade handwritten physics derivations using MathPix and GPT-4. We were able to successfully scan handwritten solution paths and achieved an R-squared of 0.84 compared to human graders on a synthetic dataset. The proposed workflow appears promising for formative feedback, but for final evaluations, it would best be used to assist human graders.","PeriodicalId":54296,"journal":{"name":"Physical Review Physics Education Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138533759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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