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Sustaining educational reforms in introductory physics

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dc.creator Steven J. Pollock
dc.creator Noah D. Finkelstein
dc.date 2008-06-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned 2015-07-20T22:11:02Z
dc.date.available 2015-07-20T22:11:02Z
dc.identifier 1554-9178
dc.identifier https://doaj.org/article/e1df49e8346e4462a9f477e06fa5d69c
dc.identifier.uri http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/14114
dc.description 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 [McDermott and Schaffer (Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002)] from initial adopters to other instructors at the University of Colorado, including traditional faculty not involved in physics educational research. The study examines the impact of implementation of tutorials on student conceptual learning across ten first-semester, and seven second-semester courses, for 15 faculty members over 13 semesters, and includes roughly 5000 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 nonresearch-based materials and do not employ learning assistants.
dc.language English
dc.publisher American Physical Society, APS
dc.relation http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v4/e010110
dc.relation https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178
dc.source Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 4, Iss 1 (2008)
dc.subject Education (General)
dc.subject L7-991
dc.subject Education
dc.subject L
dc.subject DOAJ:Education
dc.subject DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject Education (General)
dc.subject L7-991
dc.subject Education
dc.subject L
dc.subject DOAJ:Education
dc.subject DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject Education (General)
dc.subject L7-991
dc.subject Education
dc.subject L
dc.subject Education (General)
dc.subject L7-991
dc.subject Education
dc.subject L
dc.subject Education (General)
dc.subject L7-991
dc.subject Education
dc.subject L
dc.title Sustaining educational reforms in introductory physics
dc.type article


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