Tutorials in Introductory Physics: The Pain and the Gain (original) (raw)
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Physical Review Special Topics Physics Education Research, 2011
This paper examines the educational impact of the implementation of the tutorial activity ``Changes in Energy and Momentum'' from The Tutorials in Introductory Physics in five different instructional settings. These settings include (1) a completely computer-based learning environment and (2) use of cooperative learning groups with varying levels of instructor support. Pre- and post-tests provide evidence that a computer-based implementation falls significantly short of classroom implementations which involve both collaborative learning groups and interactions with a teaching assistance. Other findings provide insight into the importance of certain elements of instructor training and the appropriate use of the tutorial as an initial introduction to a new concept.
Sustaining educational reforms in introductory physics
Physical Review Special Topics-physics Education Research, 2008
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 Introductory Physics from initial adopters to other instructors at the University of Colorado, including traditional faculty not involved in physics education research. The study examines the impact of implementation of Tutorials on student conceptual learning across eight first-semester, and seven second-semester courses, for fifteen faculty over twelve semesters, and includes roughly 4000 students. It is possible to demonstrate consistently high, and statistically indistinguishable, student learning gains for different faculty members; however, such results are not the norm, and appear to rely on a variety of factors. Student performance varies by faculty background - faculty involved in, or informed by physics education research, consistently post higher student learning gains than less-informed faculty. Student performance in these courses also varies by curricula used - all semesters in which the research-based Tutorials and Learning Assistants are used have higher student learning gains than those semesters that rely on non-research based materials and do not employ Learning Assistants.
Replicating and understanding successful innovations: Implementing tutorials in introductory physics
Physical Review Special Topics-Physics …, 2005
We report a detailed study of the implementation of Tutorials in Introductory Physics at a large-scale research institution. Based on two successive semesters of evaluation, we observe students' improved conceptual mastery ͑force and motion concept evaluation median normalized gain 0.77, N = 336͒, albeit with some student discontent. We replicate the results of original studies of tutorial effectiveness and document how and why these results occur. Additionally, using the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey we measure the support of students' expertlike beliefs about learning physics in our environment. We examine this implementation from a viewpoint that emphasizes varying contextual levels of this implementation, from students' engagement in individual tasks, to the situations in which these tasks are embedded, to the broader classroom, departmental, and educational structures. We document both obvious and subtle features that help ensure the successful implementation of these reforms.
New Models of Physics Instruction Based on Physics Education Research
2000
Abstract: During the past 15 years, physics education research has revealed many surprising things about the difficulties introductory physics students have in learning physics. At the same time, the ongoing revolution in information technology has led to new tools for creating innovative educational environments. In response to these two developments, a wide variety of new models of physics instruction are beginning to appear. This paper reviews some of the findings of physics education research, putting them into the context ...
Secondary analysis of teaching methods in introductory physics: A 50 k-student study
American Journal of Physics, 2016
The Physics Education Research Section (PERS) publishes articles describing important results from the field of physics education research. Manuscripts should be submitted using the web-based system that can be accessed via the American Journal of Physics home page, http://ajp.dickinson.edu, and will be forwarded to the PERS editor for consideration.
Institutionalizing reform in introductory physics
2008
We examine how the University of Colorado at Boulder has created the sustained the use of a research-based curriculum in the introductory calculus-based physics sequence, despite the significant increases in cost and time commitment. The adoption of the University of Washington Tutorials in Introductory Physics [1] curriculum required significant pedagogical shifts in the students' role, educator's role, and student-educator interactions. We discuss how the wide-spread adoption of this curriculum was achieved at our institution. We analyze the commitment of funding and resources over time from external agencies, institutional levels, and the physics department. We then examine the reasons given by six individual faculty members for adopting the curriculum and find that key reasons for adoption include: the recognition that the old mode of lecturing in recitation was not effective, locally collected data on student learning was compelling, specific aspects of the Tutorials curriculum were convincing and the availability of additional resources for the implementation was persuasive.
A Model for Reform in Teaching Physics: Large-Enrollment Physics Classes
2015
Teachers at all levels require some knowledge of physics. A particularly large challenge is to provide appropriate higher education experiences for those future teachers who will be working with students in the first 6 to 7 years of their schooling. We have developed an activity-based course for these teachers. The activities involve both traditional short experiments and technology-based ones. The university course is somewhat unique because the design allows for one faculty member to work with a relatively large number of students and yet maintain a student-centered environment.
Teaching physics novices at university: A case for stronger scaffolding
Physical Review Special Topics-physics Education Research, 2011
In 2006 a new type of tutorial, called Map Meeting, was successfully trialled with novice first year physics students at the University of Sydney, Australia. Subsequently, in first semester 2007 a large-scale experiment was carried out with 262 students who were allocated either to the strongly scaffolding Map Meetings or to the less scaffolding Workshop Tutorials, which have been run at the University of Sydney since 1995. In this paper we describe what makes Map Meetings more scaffolding than Workshop Tutorials—where the level of scaffolding represents the main difference between the two tutorial types. Using a mixed methods approach to triangulate results, we compare the success of the two with respect to both student tutorial preference and examination performance. In summary, Map Meetings had a higher retention rate and received more positive feedback from students—students liked the strongly scaffolding environment and felt that it better helped them understand physics. A comparison of final examination performances of students who had attended at least 10 out of 12 tutorials revealed that only 11% of Map Meeting students received less than 30 out of 90 marks compared to 21% of Workshop Tutorial students, whereas there were no differences amongst high-achieving students. Map Meetings was therefore particularly successful in helping low-achieving novices learn physics.
Student expectations in introductory physics
1998
What students expect will happen in their introductory calculus-based (university) physics course plays a critical role in how they respond to the course. It affects what they listen to and what they ignore in the firehose of information provided during a typical course by professor, teaching assistant, laboratory, and text. It affects which activities students select in constructing their own knowledge base and in building their own understanding of the course material.