A Tale of Two Curricula: The performance of two thousand students in introductory electromagnetism (original) (raw)
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Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
2009
The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism ͑E&M͒ courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment ͑BEMA͒. Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curriculum and the Matter & Interactions ͑M&I͒ curriculum. At each university, postinstruction BEMA test averages were significantly higher for the M&I curriculum than for the traditional curriculum. The differences in post-test averages cannot be explained by differences in variables such as preinstruction BEMA scores, grade point average, or SAT Reasoning Test ͑SAT͒ scores. BEMA performance on categories of items organized by subtopic was also compared at one of the universities; M&I averages were significantly higher in each topic. The results suggest that the M&I curriculum is more effective than the traditional curriculum at teaching E&M concepts to students, possibly because the learning progression in M&I reorganizes and augments the traditional sequence of topics, for example, by increasing early emphasis on the vector field concept and by emphasizing the effects of fields on matter at the microscopic level.
Longitudinal study of student conceptual understanding in electricity and magnetism
Physical Review Special Topics-physics Education Research, 2009
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&M͒. We measured student performance on a research-based conceptual instrument-the Brief Electricity & Magnetism Assessment ͑BEMA͒-over a period of 8 semesters ͑2004-2007͒. Concurrently, we introduced the University of Washington's Tutorials in Introductory Physics as part of our standard freshman curriculum. Freshmen took the BEMA before and after this Tutorial-based introductory course, and juniors took it after completion of their traditional junior-level E&M I and E&M II courses. We find that, on average, individual BEMA scores do not change significantly after completion of the introductory course-neither from the freshman to the junior year, nor from upperdivision E&M I to E&M II. However, we find that juniors who had completed a non-Tutorial freshman course scored significantly lower on the ͑post-upper-division͒ BEMA than those who had completed the reformed freshman course-indicating a long-term positive impact of freshman Tutorials on conceptual understanding.
Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2007
The introductory freshmen electromagnetism course at MIT has been taught since 2000 using a studio physics format entitled TEAL—Technology Enabled Active Learning. TEAL has created a collaborative, hands-on environment where students carry out desktop experiments, submit web-based assignments, and have access to a host of visualizations and simulations. These learning tools help them visualize unseen electromagnetic concepts and develop stronger intuition about related phenomena. A previous study has shown that students who took the course in the TEAL format (the experimental group) gained significantly better conceptual understanding than those who took it in the traditional lecture-recitation format (the control group). The present longitudinal study focuses on the extent to which these two research groups (experimental and control) retain conceptual understanding about a year to 18 months after finishing the course. It also examines students attitudes about whether the teaching format (TEAL or traditional) contributes to their learning in advanced courses. Our research has indicated that the long-term effect of the TEAL course on students' retention of concepts was significantly stronger than that of the traditional course. This research is significant because it documents the long-term cognitive and affective impact of the TEAL studio physics format on learning outcomes of MIT students.
Conceptual development in secondary education: thoughts on electromagnetism
BrazilianApplied Science Review, 2019
It is well known that electromagnetism is not completely understood by students. This paper presents a brief review of different resources found in the research literature to promote students' conceptual development in electromagnetism. Then it discusses a fundamental concern for planning of teaching approaches to this topic. This theoretical research goes towards enhancing our understanding for planning concrete works in teaching electromagnetism. The hypothesis is that in order to promote students' theoretical understanding, teachers should let pupils to active engage in the learning process. We use Davydov (1998) as a theoretical basis for motivating this hypothesis.
Restructuring the Basic and Advanced Level Courses in Electromagnetic Fields
2017
In traditional electricity and magnetism (E&M) segment of introductory physics courses many increasingly abstract concepts, embodied in complex formal relations, such as Faraday's law are introduced at a rapid pace. Consequently, many students find the electricity and magnetism (E&M) course significantly more difficult than classical mechanics and struggle to understand advanced topics in circuit theory and electronic circuits. This paper identifies the problem areas in the present structure of the E&M course, and defines goals for a revised hierarchical organization of topics. The revised structure lays emphasis on making the central field concept more comprehensible and useful to students and recommends inclusion of advanced topics on electrodynamic theories in engineering curricula offering electrical and electronics courses as majors. Finally, results of studies comparing the performance of students of the revised E&M sequence with the performance of students who have underg...
Assessing students’ conceptual knowledge of electricity and magnetism
Physical Review Physics Education Research, 2017
We present the Electricity and Magnetism Conceptual Assessment (EMCA), a new assessment aligned with second-semester introductory physics courses. Topics covered include electrostatics, electric fields, circuits, magnetism, and induction. We have two motives for writing a new assessment. First, we find other assessments such as the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment and the Conceptual Survey on Electricity and Magnetism not well aligned with the topics and content depth of our courses. We want to test introductory physics content at a level appropriate for our students. Second, we want the assessment to yield scores and gains comparable to the widely used Force Concept Inventory (FCI). After five testing and revision cycles, the assessment was finalized in early 2015 and is available online. We present performance results for a cohort of 225 students at Siena College who were enrolled in our algebra-and calculus-based physics courses during the spring 2015 and 2016 semesters. We provide pretest, post-test, and gain analyses, as well as individual question and whole test statistics to quantify difficulty and reliability. In addition, we compare EMCA and FCI scores and gains, and we find that students' FCI scores are strongly correlated with their performance on the EMCA. Finally, the assessment was piloted in an algebra-based physics course at George Washington University (GWU). We present performance results for a cohort of 130 GWU students and we find that their EMCA scores are comparable to the scores of students in our calculus-based physics course.
Electromagnetism presents an interesting topic for teaching and learning of physics in high school. On the one hand, the corresponding phenomena are mostly outside the range of student experiences and relevance to every day life is not immediately identifiable for many. On the other hand, the topic offers a rich context for cultivating conceptual understanding of a progression of core scientific concepts such as interaction at a distance, force fields, mesoscopic structural models and induction. We have taken up these challenges with a view to explore the extent to which we could use epistemic practices in science and technology as an innovative approach to highlighting the relevance of electromagnetic phenomena and engaging students in a process of inquiry oriented teaching and learning. To achieve this, we have combined principles from the inquiry-oriented teaching and learning framework and learning through technological design in order to design a teaching learning sequence of a...
American Journal of Physics, 1997
An approach emphasizing the complementarity of electric and magnetic fields within a weak relativistic approximation is suggested as a basis for presenting electromagnetism in an introductory university physics course. Within the electromagnetic unification approach, ''magnetic force'' and ''electromagnetic induction'' are each taught in a manner consistent with mechanics from a qualitative relativistic point of view. The Lorentz force and the magnetic flux rule are treated similarly, linking electrical and magnetic phenomena and improving the integrity and self-consistency of the course. The status of Faraday's integral law is discussed and is shown to be of limited validity in this context.
As part of our efforts to systematically improve our junior-level Electricity & Magnetism I (Electro- and Magneto- Statics) course, we have developed a conceptual instrument, the CUE (Colorado Upper-division Electrostatics) diagnostic. Two central goals of this tool are: to assess impacts of transformed curricula, and to systematically identify and document student learning difficulties. We find persistent issues involving students’ ability to conceptually approach and visualize E&M, to accurately communicate that understanding, and to appropriately identify and apply upper-level problem-solving strategies. Our work underlines the need for further research on the nature of student learning – and appropriate instructional interventions –at the upper division.