Physical Review ST Phys. Educ. Res.

Physical Review ST Phys. Educ. Res.

Recent articles in Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
Rasch model based analysis of the Force Concept Inventory Author(s): Maja Planinic, Lana Ivanjek, and Ana Susac The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is an important diagnostic instrument which is widely used in the field of physics education research. It is therefore very important to evaluate and monitor its functioning using different tools for statistical analysis. One of such tools is the stochastic Rasch mo... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, 010103] Published Wed Mar 10, 2010 Do they see it coming? Using expectancy violation to gauge the success of pedagogical reforms Author(s): Jon D. H. Gaffney, Amy L. Housley Gaffney, and Robert J. Beichner We present a measure, which we have named the Pedagogical Expectancy Violation Assessment (PEVA), for instructors to gauge one aspect of the success of their implementation of pedagogical reform by assessing the expectations and experiences of the students in the classroom. We implemented the PEVA i... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, 010102] Published Fri Feb 05, 2010 Teaching and understanding of quantum interpretations in modern physics courses Author(s): Charles Baily and Noah D. Finkelstein Just as expert physicists vary in their personal stances on interpretation in quantum mechanics, instructors vary on whether and how to teach interpretations of quantum phenomena in introductory modern physics courses. In this paper, we document variations in instructional approaches with respect to... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, 010101] Published Wed Jan 27, 2010 Longitudinal study of student conceptual understanding in electricity and magnetism Author(s): S. J. Pollock We have investigated the long-term effect of student-centered instruction at the freshman level on juniors’ performance on a conceptual survey of Electricity and Magnetism (E&M). We measured student performance on a research-based conceptual instrument—the Brief Electricity & Magnetism Assessmen... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020110] Published Tue Dec 15, 2009 Accounting for tutorial teaching assistants’ buy-in to reform instruction Author(s): Renee Michelle Goertzen, Rachel E. Scherr, and Andrew Elby Successful implementation of tutorials includes establishing norms for learning in the tutorial classroom. The teaching assistants (TAs) who lead each tutorial section are important arbiters of these norms. TAs who value (buy into) tutorials are more likely to convey their respect for the material a... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020109] Published Mon Dec 14, 2009 Analyzing problem solving using math in physics: Epistemological framing via warrants Author(s): Thomas J. Bing and Edward F. Redish Developing expertise in physics entails learning to use mathematics effectively and efficiently as applied to the context of physical situations. Doing so involves coordinating a variety of concepts and skills including mathematical processing, computation, blending ancillary information with the ma... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020108] Published Mon Dec 14, 2009 Impact of physics education research on the teaching of introductory quantitative physics in the United States Author(s): Charles Henderson and Melissa H. Dancy During the Fall of 2008 we designed and administered a web survey to collect information about pedagogical knowledge and practices of physics faculty. The survey was completed by a representative sample of 722 physics faculty across the United States (a 50.3% response rate). This paper presents resu... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020107] Published Fri Dec 11, 2009 Erratum: Applying clustering to statistical analysis of student reasoning about two-dimensional kinematics [Phys Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020107 (2007)] Author(s): R. Padraic Springuel, Michael C. Wittmann, and John R. Thompson [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 029902] Published Mon Nov 09, 2009 Video analysis for insight and coding: Examples from tutorials in introductory physics Author(s): Rachel E. Scherr The increasing ease of video recording offers new opportunities to create richly detailed records of classroom activities. These recordings, in turn, call for research methodologies that balance generalizability with interpretive validity. This paper shares methodology for two practices of video ana... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020106] Published Mon Oct 19, 2009 Publisher's Note: Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020105 (2009)] Author(s): Matthew A. Kohlmyer, Marcos D. Caballero, Richard Catrambone, Ruth W. Chabay, Lin Ding, Mark P. Haugan, M. Jackson Marr, Bruce A. Sherwood, and Michael F. Schatz [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 029901] Published Wed Oct 14, 2009 Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism Author(s): Matthew A. Kohlmyer, Marcos D. Caballero, Richard Catrambone, Ruth W. Chabay, Lin Ding, Mark P. Haugan, M. Jackson Marr, Bruce A. Sherwood, and Michael F. Schatz The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism (E&M) courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA). Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curriculum and ... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020105] Published Mon Oct 05, 2009 Probing student understanding of scientific thinking in the context of introductory astrophysics Author(s): Richard N. Steinberg, Sebastien Cormier, and Adiel Fernandez Common forms of testing of student understanding of science content can be misleading about their understanding of the nature of scientific thinking. Observational astronomy integrated with related ideas of force and motion is a rich context to explore the correlation between student content knowled... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020104] Published Wed Sep 30, 2009 Approaches to data analysis of multiple-choice questions Author(s): Lin Ding and Robert Beichner This paper introduces five commonly used approaches to analyzing multiple-choice test data. They are classical test theory, factor analysis, cluster analysis, item response theory, and model analysis. Brief descriptions of the goals and algorithms of these approaches are provided, together with exam... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020103] Published Thu Sep 10, 2009 Validation study of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey at a Hispanic-serving institution Author(s): Vashti Sawtelle, Eric Brewe, and Laird Kramer The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) has been widely acknowledged as a useful measure of student cognitive attitudes about science and learning. The initial University of Colorado validation study included only 20% non-Caucasian student populations. In this Brief Report we ex... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 023101] Published Fri Aug 28, 2009 Changes in students’ problem-solving strategies in a course that includes context-rich, multifaceted problems Author(s): C. A. Ogilvie Most students struggle when faced with complex and open-ended tasks because the strategies taught in schools and universities simply require finding and applying the correct formulae or strategy to answer well-structured, algorithmic problems. For students to develop their ability to solve ill-struc... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020102] Published Fri Aug 28, 2009 Not all interactive engagement is the same: Variations in physics professors’ implementation of Peer Instruction Author(s): Chandra Turpen and Noah D. Finkelstein While educational reforms in introductory physics are becoming more widespread, how these reforms are implemented is less well understood. This paper examines the variation in faculty practices surrounding the implementation of educational reform in introductory physics courses. Through observations... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 020101] Published Thu Aug 20, 2009 “Force,” ontology, and language Author(s): David T. Brookes and Eugenia Etkina We introduce a linguistic framework through which one can interpret systematically students’ understanding of and reasoning about force and motion. Some researchers have suggested that students have robust misconceptions or alternative frameworks grounded in everyday experience. Others have pointe... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010110] Published Thu Jun 25, 2009 Modeling instruction: Positive attitudinal shifts in introductory physics measured with CLASS Author(s): Eric Brewe, Laird Kramer, and George O’Brien Among the most surprising findings in Physics Education Research is the lack of positive results on attitudinal measures, such as Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) and Maryland Physics Expectations Survey (MPEX). The uniformity with which physics teaching manages to negatively... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 013102] Published Fri Jun 19, 2009 Using action research to improve learning and formative assessment to conduct research Author(s): Eugenia Etkina, Anna Karelina, Sahana Murthy, and Maria Ruibal-Villasenor The paper reports on how educational research informed and supported both the process of refinement of introductory physics laboratory instruction and student development of scientific abilities. In particular we focus on how the action research approach paradigm combined with instructional approach... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010109] Published Wed Jun 03, 2009 Do students use and understand free-body diagrams? Author(s): David Rosengrant, Alan Van Heuvelen, and Eugenia Etkina Physics education literature recommends using multiple representations to help students understand concepts and solve problems. However, there is little research concerning why students use the representations and whether those who use them are more successful. This study addresses these questions u... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010108] Published Mon Jun 01, 2009 Gender differences in the use of an online homework system in an introductory physics course Author(s): Gerd Kortemeyer The two genders make different use of being allowed multiple tries to solve online homework problems: male students frequently attempt to immediately solve the problem, while female students are more likely to first interact with peers and teaching assistants before entering answers. More male than ... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010107] Published Tue May 26, 2009 Development of quantum perspectives in modern physics Author(s): Charles Baily and Noah D. Finkelstein Introductory undergraduate courses in classical physics stress a perspective that can be characterized as realist; from this perspective, all physical properties of a classical system can be simultaneously specified and thus determined at all future times. Such a perspective can be problematic for i... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010106] Published Mon Mar 23, 2009 Comparing the force and motion conceptual evaluation and the force concept inventory Author(s): Ronald K Thornton, Dennis Kuhl, Karen Cummings, and Jeffrey Marx In this paper we compare and contrast student’s pretest/post-test performance on the Halloun-Hestenes force concept inventory (FCI) to the Thornton-Sokoloff force and motion conceptual evaluation (FMCE). Both tests are multiple-choice assessment instruments whose results are used to characterize h... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010105] Published Fri Mar 20, 2009 Anatomy of a physics test: Validation of the physics items on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Author(s): Jill A. Marshall, Eric A. Hagedorn, and Jerry O’Connor We report the results of an analysis of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) designed to determine whether the TAKS is a valid indicator of whether students know and can do physics at the level necessary for success in future coursework, STEM careers, and life in a technological socie... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010104] Published Wed Mar 04, 2009 Characterizing the epistemological development of physics majors Author(s): Elizabeth Gire, Barbara Jones, and Edward Price Students in introductory physics courses are likely to have views about physics that differ from those of experts. However, students who continue to study physics eventually become experts themselves. Presumably these students either possess or develop more expertlike views. To investigate this proc... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010103] Published Mon Feb 23, 2009 Peaks and decays of student knowledge in an introductory E&M course Author(s): Eleanor C. Sayre and Andrew F. Heckler A common format for assessment of learning is pretesting and post-testing. In this study, we collect student test data several times per week throughout a course, allowing for the measurement of the changes in student knowledge with a time resolution on the order of a few days. To avoid the possibil... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 013101] Published Thu Feb 12, 2009 Link maps and map meetings: Scaffolding student learning Author(s): Christine Lindstrøm and Manjula D. Sharma With student numbers decreasing and traditional teaching methods having been found inefficient, it is widely accepted that alternative teaching methods need to be explored in tertiary physics education. In 2006 a different teaching environment was offered to 244 first year students with little or no... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010102] Published Thu Jan 22, 2009 Characterizing the gender gap in introductory physics Author(s): Lauren E. Kost, Steven J. Pollock, and Noah D. Finkelstein Previous research [S. J. Pollock , Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 1 (2007)] showed that despite the use of interactive engagement techniques, the gap in performance between males and females on a conceptual learning survey persisted from pretest to post-test at the University of Colorado at Bould... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010101] Published Thu Jan 08, 2009 How long does it take? A study of student acquisition of scientific abilities Author(s): Eugenia Etkina, Anna Karelina, and Maria Ruibal-Villasenor Most of the time, instructors of introductory physics limit their goals to students’ acquisition of basic concepts and end-of-the-chapter problem solving efficiency. They overlook the development of students’ science process abilities required for constructing scientific knowledge and approachin... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 020108] Published Wed Dec 03, 2008 Correlations among knowledge structures, force concept inventory, and problem-solving behaviors Author(s): Kathy L. Malone The modeling instruction pedagogy for the teaching of physics has been proven to be quite effective at increasing the conceptual understanding and problem-solving abilities of students to a much greater extent than that of nonmodeling students. Little research has been conducted concerning the cogni... [Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, 020107] Published Thu Nov 20, 2008

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