72 research outputs found
Examining and contrasting the cognitive activities engaged in undergraduate research experiences and lab courses
While the positive outcomes of undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have
been extensively categorized, the mechanisms for those outcomes are less
understood. Through lightly structured focus group interviews, we have
extracted the cognitive tasks that students identify as engaging in during
their UREs. We also use their many comparative statements about their
coursework, especially lab courses, to evaluate their experimental
physics-related cognitive tasks in those environments. We find there are a
number of cognitive tasks consistently encountered in physics UREs that are
present in most experimental research. These are seldom encountered in lab or
lecture courses, with some notable exceptions. Having time to reflect and fix
or revise, and having a sense of autonomy, were both repeatedly cited as key
enablers of the benefits of UREs. We also identify tasks encountered in actual
experimental research that are not encountered in UREs. We use these findings
to identify opportunities for better integration of the cognitive tasks in UREs
and lab courses, as well as discussing the barriers that exist. This work
responds to extensive calls for science education to better develop students'
scientific skills and practices, as well as calls to expose more students to
scientific research.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Transforming a 4th year Modern Optics Course Using a Deliberate Practice Framework
We present a study of active learning pedagogies in an upper division physics
course. This work was guided by the principle of deliberate practice for the
development of expertise, and this principle was used in the design of the
materials and the orchestration of the classroom activities of the students. We
present our process for efficiently converting a traditional lecture course
based on instructor notes into activities for such a course with active
learning methods. Ninety percent of the same material was covered and scores on
common exam problems showed a 15 % improvement with an effect size greater than
1 after the transformation. We observe that the improvement and the associated
effect size is sustained after handing off the materials to a second
instructor. Because the improvement on exam questions was independent of
specific problem topics and because the material tested was so mathematically
advanced and broad (including linear algebra, Fourier Transforms, partial
differential equations, vector calculus), we expect the transformation process
could be applied to most upper division physics courses having a similar
mathematical base.Comment: 31 page
Oersted Medal Lecture 2007: Interactive simulations for teaching physics: What works, what doesn't, and why
We give an overview of the Physics Educational Technology (PhET) project to research and develop web-based interactive simulations for teaching and learning physics. The design philosophy, simulation development and testing process, and range of available simulations are described. The highlights of PhET research on simulation design and effectiveness in a variety of educational settings are provided. This work has shown that a well-designed interactive simulation can be an engaging and effective tool for learning physics
Seeking instructional specificity: an example from analogical instruction
Broad instructional methods like interactive engagement have been shown to be
effective, but such general characterization provides little guidance on the
details of how to structure the instructional materials. In this study, we seek
instructional specificity by comparing two ways of using an analogy to learn a
target physical principle: (i) applying the analogy to the target physical
domain on a Case-by-Case basis and (ii) using the analogy to create a General
Rule in the target physical domain. In the discussion sections of a large,
introductory physics course (N = 231), students who sought a General Rule were
better able to discover and apply a correct physics principle than students who
analyzed the examples Case-by-Case. The difference persisted at a reduced level
after subsequent direct instruction. We argue that students who performed
Case-by-Case analyses are more likely to focus on idiosyncratic
problem-specific features rather than the deep structural features. This study
provides an example of investigating how the specific structure of
instructional materials can be consequential for what is learned
Value added or misattributed? A multi-institution study on the educational benefit of labs for reinforcing physics content
Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to
teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab
courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at
three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encompassed a
broad range of student populations and instructional styles. The nine courses
studied had two key things in common: the labs aimed to reinforce the content
presented in lectures, and the labs were optional. By comparing the performance
of students who did and did not take the labs (with careful normalization for
selection effects), we found universally and precisely no added value to
learning from taking the labs as measured by course exam performance. This work
should motivate institutions and departments to reexamine the goals and conduct
of their lab courses, given their resource-intensive nature. We show why these
results make sense when looking at the comparative mental processes of students
involved in research and instructional labs, and offer alternative goals and
instructional approaches that would make lab courses more educationally
valuable.Comment: Accepted to Phys Rev PE
Physics Exams that Promote Collaborative Learning
The two-stage exam is a relatively simple way to introduce collaborative
learning and formative assessment into an exam. Their use is rapidly growing
in the physics department at the University of British Columbia, as both
students and faculty find them rewarding. In a two-stage exam students first
complete and turn in the exam individually, and then, working in small groups,
answer the exam questions again. During the second stage, the room is filled
with spirited and effective debate with nearly every student participating.
This provides students with immediate targeted feedback supplied by
discussions with their peers. Furthermore, we see indications that the use of
this exam format not only ensures consistency across interactive course
components, but it also positively impacts how students approach the other
collaborative course components. This is accomplished without losing the
summative assessment of individual performance that is the expectation of
exams for most instructors. In this paper we describe how to implement two-
stage exams and provide arguments why they should be part of physics courses
that use interactive engagement and social/collaborative learning methods
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