do our physics degrees create expert physicists?
DESCRIPTION
Talk given by Kate Slaughter at GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, FinlandTRANSCRIPT
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Do our physics degrees create expert physicists?
A longitudinal study using CLASS
K.A. Slaughter, S.P. Bates and R.K. Galloway
School of Physics and Astronomy The University of Edinburgh
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
In the next 20 minutes…
• Educational context of the study
• The CLASS instrument • “Normal” usage of the CLASS
• Longitudinal Project • Fully longitudinal study • Cross-sectional study • Comparison of the two methods
• Conclusions
• Future work
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Educational Context
• School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
• Traditional research based university.
• Active PER group based within the School of Physics.
• 1st year taught in a reformed workshop style with increasingly traditional teaching styles at higher levels.
• 2 exit points to the degree program, Bachelors of Science or Master of Physics.
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
CLASS Survey
• Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey.
• Used Extensively in the US - studies emerging now from the rest of world.
• Examines attitudes towards study rather than content knowledge.
• Series of 42 attitudinal questions, compared to responses from expert physicists.
• Percentage of “expert-like” thinking. • Can calculate percentage “favorable” and “unfavorable”
• Extensively validated by the survey designers.
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
CLASS Survey
• Normally used pre and post a period of instruction.
• Key feature - student levels of expert-like decline after first year of university physics teaching (unless specifically targeted)
• Carried out studies with our 1st year cohort, 3 years of data collection - all record a drop in expert-like thinking after instruction.
• High levels of expert-like thinking recorded.
• Interesting features seen in the sub-cohorts of the class, majors/non-majors, male/female (Presented at GIREP-EPEC 2009).
• Inspired the question “What happens next?”
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
CLASS Survey
• Little work published on CLASS scores over time.
• Time involved in tracking the students - problem.
• We have started a study of our student attitudes as they progress through the degree program.
• 2 possible methods…..
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Fully Longitudinal method
• Same cohort of students are surveyed as they progress through the degree program.
• Advantages • Can track individual students removing the need to make assumptions about the similarity of the cohort. • External factors don’t matter.
• Disadvantages • Time • Sample size getting smaller with each measurement
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Fully Longitudinal method
N=35
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Cross-sectional
• All data collected in the same academic year and inter year comparisons are drawn.
• First study of this type carried out by Gire et al.
• Advantages • Can be done without waiting for the cohort to progress • Not effected by N diminishing
• Disadvantages • Have to assume all cohorts are the same
• Can test this assumption using 3 years of 1st year data - no significant differences found in any of the data.
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Cross-sectional method
N=625
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Validation of methods
• Can use the fully longitudinal data to validate the cross-sectional method.
• Data collected in fully longitudinal study compared to the corresponding years of data in the cross-sectional method.
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Validation of methods
No significant difference found between methods for any of the three years.
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Conclusions
• Students come in with high levels of expert-like thinking and remain high.
• Expert-like thinking appears to be flat during undergraduate study.
• Appear to be transitions at entry and exit points to an undergraduate degree.
• Results from the first three years of a fully-longitudinal study suggest a cross-sectional method is valid.
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Future work
• Gender differences in the cohort.
• When are these expertise formed? • Study in high schools ongoing
• Final data collection spring 2012 • Correlation of CLASS scores to career destinations and final degree grades?
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Physics Education Research The University of Edinburgh
GIREP-EPEC, August 2011 - Jyväskylä, Finland
Thank you for your time.
[email protected] www.ph.ed.ac.uk/physics-education-research
References CLASS Design and Validation "A new instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics: the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey." W. K. Adams, K. K. Perkins, N. Podolefsky, M. Dubson, N. D. Finkelstein and C. E. Wieman, Phys. Rev ST: Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 1, 010101 (2006).
First Year CLASS at the University of Edinburgh “The changes in attitudes and beliefs of first year physics undergraduates: A study using the CLASS survey” K.A.Slaughter, S.P. Bates and R.K. Galloway, International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education. Publication Pending (2011)
Cross-sectional Study using CLASS “Characterizing the epistemological development of physics majors” E. Gire, B. Jones and E. Price Phys. Rev ST: Phys. Educ. Res. 5, 010103 (2009).