Students' views about the nature of experimental physics

The physics community explores and explains the physical world through a blend of theoretical and experimental studies. The future of physics as a discipline depends on training of students in both the theoretical and experimental aspects of the field. However, while student learning within lecture courses has been the subject of extensive research, lab courses remain relatively under-studied. In particular, there is little, if any, data available that addresses the effectiveness of physics lab courses at encouraging students to recognize the nature and importance of experimental physics within the discipline as a whole. To address this gap, we present the first large-scale, national study ($N_{institutions}=75$ and $N_{students}=7167$) of undergraduate physics lab courses through analysis of students' responses to a research-validated assessment designed to investigate students' beliefs about the nature of experimental physics. We find that students often enter and leave physics lab courses with ideas about experimental physics as practiced in their courses that are inconsistent with the views of practicing experimental physicists, and this trend holds at both the introductory and upper-division levels. Despite this inconsistency, we find that both introductory and upper-division students are able to accurately predict the expert-like response even in cases where their views about experimentation in their lab courses disagree. These finding have implications for the recruitment, retention, and adequate preparation of students in physics.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, Accepted to Phys. Rev. PE

Research-based assessment of students' beliefs about experimental physics: When is gender a factor?

The existence of gender differences in student performance on conceptual assessments and their responses to attitudinal assessments has been repeatedly demonstrated. This difference is often present in students' preinstruction responses and persists in their postinstruction responses. However, one area in which the presence of gender differences has not been extensively explored is undergraduate laboratory courses. For example, one of the few laboratory focused research-based assessments, the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS), has not been tested for the existence of gender differences in students' responses. Here, we utilize a national data set of responses to the E-CLASS to determine if they demonstrate significant gender differences. We also investigate how these differences vary along multiple student and course demographic slices, including course level (first-year vs.\ beyond-first-year) and major (physics vs.\ non-physics). We observe a gender gap in pre- and postinstruction E-CLASS scores in the aggregate data both for the overall score and for most items individually. However, for some subpopulations (e.g., beyond-first-year students) the size or even existence of the gender gap depends on another dimension (e.g., student major). We also find that for all groups the gap in postinstruction scores vanishes or is greatly reduced when controlling for preinstruction scores, course level, and student major.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev. - PE

Students' epistemologies about experimental physics: Validating the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics

Student learning in instructional physics labs represents a growing area of research that includes investigations of students' beliefs and expectations about the nature of experimental physics. To directly probe students' epistemologies about experimental physics and support broader lab transformation efforts at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and elsewhere, we developed the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS). Previous work with this assessment has included establishing the accuracy and clarity of the instrument through student interviews and preliminary testing. Several years of data collection at multiple institutions has resulted in a growing national data set of student responses. Here, we report on results of the analysis of these data to investigate the statistical validity and reliability of the E-CLASS as a measure of students' epistemologies for a broad student population. We find that the E-CLASS demonstrates an acceptable level of both validity and reliability on measures of, item and test discrimination, test-retest reliability, partial-sample reliability, internal consistency, concurrent validity, and convergent validity. We also examine students' responses using Principal Component Analysis and find that, as expected, the E-CLASS does not exhibit strong factors.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 7 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. ST - PE

Improvement or selection? A longitudinal analysis of students' views about experimental physics in their lab courses

Laboratory courses represent a unique and potentially important component of the undergraduate physics curriculum, which can be designed to allow students to authentically engage with the process of experimental physics. Among other possible benefits, participation in these courses throughout the undergraduate physics curriculum presents an opportunity to develop students' understanding of the nature and importance of experimental physics within the discipline as a whole. Here, we present and compare both a longitudinal and pseudo-longitudinal analysis of students' responses to a research-based assessment targeting students' views about experimental physics -- the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) -- across multiple, required lab courses at a single institution. We find that, while pseudo-longitudinal averages showed increases in students' E-CLASS scores in each consecutive course, analysis of longitudinal data indicates that this increase was not driven by a cumulative impact of laboratory instruction. Rather, the increase was driven by a selection effect in which students who persisted into higher-level lab courses already had more expert-like beliefs, attitudes, and expectations than their peers when they started the lower-level courses.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, submitted as a short paper to Phys. Rev. PE

Upper-division student difficulties with Separation of Variables

Separation of variables can be a powerful technique for solving many of the partial differential equations that arise in physics contexts. Upper-division physics students encounter this technique in multiple topical areas including electrostatics and quantum mechanics. To better understand the difficulties students encounter when utilizing the separation of variables technique, we examined students' responses to midterm exam questions and a standardized conceptual assessment, and conducted think-aloud, problem-solving interviews. Our analysis was guided by an analytical framework that focuses on how students activate, construct, execute, and reflect on the separation of variables technique when solving physics problems. Here we focus on student difficulties with separation of variables as a technique to solve Laplace's equation in both Cartesian and spherical coordinates in the context of junior-level electrostatics. Challenges include: recognizing when separation of variables is the appropriate tool; recalling/justifying the separated form of the potential and the need for the infinite sum; identifying implicit boundary conditions; and spontaneously reflecting on their solutions. Moreover, the type and frequency of errors was often different for SoV problems in Cartesian and spherical geometries. We also briefly discuss implication of these our findings for instruction.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. ST-PE

Validation and analysis of the coupled multiple response Colorado upper-division electrostatics (CUE) diagnostic

Standardized conceptual assessment represents a widely-used tool for educational researchers interested in student learning within the standard undergraduate physics curriculum. For example, these assessments are often used to measure student learning across educational contexts and instructional strategies. However, to support the large-scale implementation often required for cross-institutional testing, it is necessary for these instruments to have question formats that facilitate easy grading. Previously, we created a multiple-response version of an existing, validated, upper-division electrostatics diagnostic with the goal of increasing the instrument's potential for large-scale implementation. Here, we report on the validity and reliability of this new version as an independent instrument. These findings establish the validity of the multiple-response version as measured by multiple test statistics including item difficulty, item discrimination, and internal consistency. Moreover, we demonstrate that the majority of student responses to the new version are internally consistent even when they are incorrect, and provide an example of how the new format can be used to gain insight into student difficulties with specific content in electrostatics.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. ST-PE

Multiple-choice Assessment for Upper-division Electricity and Magnetism

The Colorado Upper-division Electrostatics (CUE) diagnostic was designed as an open-ended assessment in order to capture elements of student reasoning in upper-division electrostatics. The diagnostic has been given for many semesters at several universities resulting in an extensive database of CUE responses. To increase the utility and scalability of the assessment, we used this database along with research on students' difficulties to create a multiple-choice version. The new version explores the viability of a novel test format where students select multiple responses and can receive partial credit based on the accuracy and consistency of their selections. This format was selected with the goal of preserving insights afforded by the open-ended format while exploiting the logistical advantages of a multiple-choice assessment. Here, we present examples of the questions and scoring of the multiple-choice CUE as well as initial analysis of the test's validity, item difficulty, discrimination, and overall consistency with the open-ended version.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted 2013 Physics Education Research Conference proceeding