Physical Review ST Phys. Educ. Res.

Physical Review ST Phys. Educ. Res.

Recent articles in Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
Editorial: APS now leaves copyright with authors for derivative works Author(s): Gene D. Sprouse [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 020003] Published Wed Oct 01, 2008 Accounting for variability in student responses to motion questions Author(s): Brian W. Frank, Stephen E. Kanim, and Luanna S. Gomez We describe the results of an experiment conducted to test predictions about student responses to questions about motion based on an explicit model of student thinking in terms of the cuing of a variety of different physical intuitions or conceptual resources. This particular model allows us to acco... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 020102] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008 Editorial: Physics - spotlighting exceptional research Author(s): Gene D. Sprouse [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 020002] Published Mon Sep 15, 2008 Applying a resources framework to analysis of the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation Author(s): Trevor I. Smith and Michael C. Wittmann We suggest one redefinition of common clusters of questions used to analyze student responses on the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation. Our goal is to propose a methodology that moves beyond an analysis of student learning defined by correct responses, either on the overall test or on clusters ... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 020101] Published Wed Sep 10, 2008 Announcement: New Associate Editor Author(s): [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 020001] Published Tue Sep 09, 2008 Effects of testing conditions on conceptual survey results Author(s): Lin Ding, Neville W. Reay, Albert Lee, and Lei Bao Pre-testing and post-testing is a commonly used method in Physics Education Research to assess student learning gains. It is well recognized in the community that timings and incentives in delivering conceptual tests can impact test results. However, it is difficult to control these variables across... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010112] Published Mon Jun 09, 2008 Patterns of multiple representation use by experts and novices during physics problem solving Author(s): Patrick B. Kohl and Noah D. Finkelstein It is generally believed that students should use multiple representations in solving certain physics problems, and earlier work in PER has begun to outline how experts and novices differ in their use of multiple representations. In this study, we build on this foundation by interviewing expert and ... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010111] Published Mon Jun 09, 2008 Sustaining educational reforms in introductory physics Author(s): Steven J. Pollock and Noah D. Finkelstein While it is well known which curricular practices can improve student performance on measures of conceptual understanding, the sustaining of these practices and the role of faculty members in implementing these practices are less well understood. We present a study of the hand-off of Tutorials in In... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010110] Published Tue Jun 03, 2008 Mathematical learning models that depend on prior knowledge and instructional strategies Author(s): David E. Pritchard, Young-Jin Lee, and Lei Bao We present mathematical learning models—predictions of student’s knowledge vs amount of instruction—that are based on assumptions motivated by various theories of learning: tabula rasa, constructivist, and tutoring. These models predict the improvement (on the post-test) as a function of the p... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010109] Published Tue May 20, 2008 Impact of a conventional introductory laboratory course on the understanding of measurement Author(s): Trevor S. Volkwyn, Saalih Allie, Andy Buffler, and Fred Lubben Conventional physics laboratory courses generally include an emphasis on increasing students’ ability to carry out data analysis according to scientific practice, in particular, those aspects that relate to measurement uncertainty. This study evaluates the efficacy of the conventional approach by ... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010108] Published Thu May 01, 2008 How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class Author(s): Olivia Levrini and Andrea A. diSessa This article provides an empirical analysis of a single classroom episode in which students reveal difficulties with the concept of proper time in special relativity but slowly make progress in improving their understanding. The theoretical framework used is “coordination class theory,” which is... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010107] Published Wed Apr 23, 2008 Reliability, compliance, and security in web-based course assessments Author(s): Scott Bonham Pre- and postcourse assessment has become a very important tool for education research in physics and other areas. The web offers an attractive alternative to in-class paper administration, but concerns about web-based administration include reliability due to changes in medium, student compliance r... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010106] Published Tue Apr 15, 2008 Assessing student expertise in introductory physics with isomorphic problems. II. Effect of some potential factors on problem solving and transfer Author(s): Chandralekha Singh In this paper, we explore the use of isomorphic problem pairs (IPPs) to assess introductory physics students’ ability to solve and successfully transfer problem-solving knowledge from one context to another in mechanics. We call the paired problems “isomorphic” because they require the same ph... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010105] Published Fri Mar 28, 2008 Assessing student expertise in introductory physics with isomorphic problems. I. Performance on nonintuitive problem pair from introductory physics Author(s): Chandralekha Singh Investigations related to expertise in problem solving and ability to transfer learning from one context to another are important for developing strategies to help students perform more expertlike tasks. Here we analyze written responses to a pair of nonintuitive isomorphic problems given to introdu... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010104] Published Fri Mar 28, 2008 Why we should teach the Bohr model and how to teach it effectively Author(s): S. B. McKagan, K. K. Perkins, and C. E. Wieman Some education researchers have claimed that we should not teach the Bohr model of the atom because it inhibits students’ ability to learn the true quantum nature of electrons in atoms. Although the evidence for this claim is weak, many have accepted it. This claim has implications for how to pres... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010103] Published Thu Mar 06, 2008 Measuring student learning with item response theory Author(s): Young-Jin Lee, David J. Palazzo, Rasil Warnakulasooriya, and David E. Pritchard We investigate short-term learning from hints and feedback in a Web-based physics tutoring system. Both the skill of students and the difficulty and discrimination of items were determined by applying item response theory (IRT) to the first answers of students who are working on for-credit homework ... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010102] Published Thu Jan 31, 2008 Gesture analysis for physics education researchers Author(s): Rachel E. Scherr Systematic observations of student gestures can not only fill in gaps in students’ verbal expressions, but can also offer valuable information about student ideas, including their source, their novelty to the speaker, and their construction in real time. This paper provides a review of the researc... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 010101] Published Fri Jan 25, 2008 Physics faculty beliefs and values about the teaching and learning of problem solving. II. Procedures for measurement and analysis Author(s): Charles Henderson, Edit Yerushalmi, Vince H. Kuo, Kenneth Heller, and Patricia Heller To identify and describe the basis upon which instructors make curricular and pedagogical decisions, we have developed an artifact-based interview and an analysis technique based on multilayered concept maps. The policy capturing technique used in the interview asks instructors to make judgments abo... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020110] Published Wed Dec 12, 2007 Physics faculty beliefs and values about the teaching and learning of problem solving. I. Mapping the common core Author(s): E. Yerushalmi, C. Henderson, K. Heller, P. Heller, and V. Kuo In higher education, instructors’ choices of both curricular material and pedagogy are determined by their beliefs about learning and teaching, the values of their profession, and perceived external constraints. Dissemination of research-based educational reforms is based on assumptions about that... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020109] Published Wed Dec 12, 2007 Phenomenographic study of students’ problem solving approaches in physics Author(s): Laura N. Walsh, Robert G. Howard, and Brian Bowe This paper describes ongoing research investigating student approaches to quantitative and qualitative problem solving in physics. This empirical study was conducted using a phenomenographic approach to analyze data from individual semistructured problem solving interviews with 22 introductory colle... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020108] Published Wed Dec 12, 2007 Applying clustering to statistical analysis of student reasoning about two-dimensional kinematics Author(s): R. Padraic Springuel, Michael C. Wittmann, and John R. Thompson We use clustering, an analysis method not presently common to the physics education research community, to group and characterize student responses to written questions about two-dimensional kinematics. Previously, clustering has been used to analyze multiple-choice data; we analyze free-response da... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020107] Published Mon Dec 03, 2007 Editorial: Which Wei Wang? Author(s): Gene D. Sprouse [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020001] Published Mon Dec 03, 2007 Acting like a physicist: Student approach study to experimental design Author(s): Anna Karelina and Eugenia Etkina National studies of science education have unanimously concluded that preparing our students for the demands of the 21st century workplace is one of the major goals. This paper describes a study of student activities in introductory college physics labs, which were designed to help students acquire ... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020106] Published Fri Oct 19, 2007 Comparing three methods for teaching Newton’s third law Author(s): Trevor I. Smith and Michael C. Wittmann Although guided-inquiry methods for teaching introductory physics have been individually shown to be more effective at improving conceptual understanding than traditional lecture-style instruction, researchers in physics education have not studied differences among reform-based curricula in much det... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020105] Published Thu Oct 18, 2007 Analogical scaffolding and the learning of abstract ideas in physics: Empirical studies Author(s): Noah S. Podolefsky and Noah D. Finkelstein Previously, we proposed a model of student reasoning which combines the roles of representation, analogy, and layering of meaning—analogical scaffolding [Podolefsky and Finkelstein, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 010109 (2007)]. The present empirical studies build on this model to examine its u... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020104] Published Fri Sep 14, 2007 Announcement: Teacher Preparation Book Author(s): Anonymous [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020103] Published Tue Sep 11, 2007 Barriers to the use of research-based instructional strategies: The influence of both individual and situational characteristics Author(s): Charles Henderson and Melissa H. Dancy Many proven research-based instructional strategies have been developed for introductory college-level physics. Significant efforts to disseminate these strategies have focused on convincing individual instructors to give up their traditional practices in favor of particular research-based practices... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020102] Published Fri Sep 07, 2007 Publisher's Note: Strongly and weakly directed approaches to teaching multiple representation use in physics [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 010108 (2007)] Author(s): Patrick B. Kohl, David Rosengrant, and Noah D. Finkelstein [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 029901] Published Fri Aug 03, 2007 Elements of a cognitive model of physics problem solving: Epistemic games Author(s): Jonathan Tuminaro and Edward F. Redish Although much is known about the differences between expert and novice problem solvers, knowledge of those differences typically does not provide enough detail to help instructors understand why some students seem to learn physics while solving problems and others do not. A critical issue is how stu... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020101] Published Fri Jul 06, 2007 Publisher's Note: Strongly and weakly directed approaches to teaching multiple representation use in physics [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 010108 (2007)] Author(s): Patrick B. Kohl, David Rosengrant, and Noah D. Finkelstein [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 019901] Published Wed Jun 20, 2007

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