David T. Brookes

Comparing the efficacy of multimedia modules with traditional textbooks for learning introductory physics content

We compared the efficacy of multimedia learning modules with traditional textbooks for the first few topics of a calculus-based introductory electricity and magnetism course. Students were randomly assigned to three groups. One group received the multimedia learning module presentations, and the other two received the presentations via written text. All students were then tested on their learning immediately following the presentations as well as 2weeks later. The students receiving the multimedia learning modules performed significantly better on both tests than the students experiencing the text-based presentations.

Impact of multimedia learning modules on an introductory course on electricity and magnetism

Web-based multimedia learning modules were added as prelectures to our reformed introductory electricity and magnetism course. Each module consisted of approximately 20 min of narrated animation, and students were given credit for completing them before lecture. To compensate for this additional time, lectures were reduced from 75 to 50 min. In addition to a modest increase in exam performance, the changes dramatically improved student attitudes toward the course in general and lectures in particular.

Abstract numeric relations and the visual structure of algebra.

Formal algebras are among the most powerful and general mechanisms for expressing quantitative relational statements; yet, even university engineering students, who are relatively proficient with algebraic manipulation, struggle with and often fail to correctly deploy basic aspects of algebraic notation (Clement, 1982). In the cognitive tradition, it has often been assumed that skilled users of these formalisms treat situations in terms of semantic properties encoded in an abstract syntax that governs the use of notation without particular regard to the details of the physical structure of the equation itself (Anderson, 2005; Hegarty, Mayer, & Monk, 1995). We explore how the notational structure of verbal descriptions or algebraic equations (e.g., the spatial proximity of certain words or the visual alignment of numbers and symbols in an equation) plays a role in the process of interpreting or constructing symbolic equations. We propose in particular that construction processes involve an alignment of notational structures across representation systems, biasing reasoners toward the selection of formal notations that maintain the visuospatial structure of source representations. For example, in the statement There are 5 elephants for every 3 rhinoceroses, the spatial proximity of 5 and elephants and 3 and rhinoceroses will bias reasoners to write the incorrect expression 5E = 3R, because that expression maintains the spatial relationships encoded in the source representation. In 3 experiments, participants constructed equations with given structure, based on story problems with a variety of phrasings. We demonstrate how the notational alignment approach accounts naturally for a variety of previously reported phenomena in equation construction and successfully predicts error patterns that are not accounted for by prior explanations, such as the left to right transcription heuristic.

The Importance of Language in Students' Reasoning About Heat in Thermodynamic Processes

Researchers believe that the way that students talk, specifically the language that they use, can offer a window into their reasoning processes. Yet the connection between what students are saying and what they are actually thinking can be ambiguous. We present the results of an exploratory interview study with 10 participants, designed to investigate the role of language in university physics students reasoning about heat in thermodynamic processes. The study revealed two key findings: (1) students approaches to solving certain heat-related problems are related to the way in which they explicitly define the word ‘heat’ and (2) students tendency to reason with heat as a state function in inappropriate contexts appears to be connected to a model of heat implicitly encoded in language. This model represents heat or heat energy/thermal energy as a substance that moves from one location to another. In this model, students talk about thermodynamic systems as ‘containers of heat, and temperature is a measure of the amount of heat ‘in an object.

Structuring Classroom Discourse Using Formative Assessment Rubrics

There has been substantial attention paid to students’ abilities to engage in a scientific discussion and think critically in a science class. But what constitutes critical thinking in physics? We will discuss a view that critical thinking involves participants (students) becoming increasingly involved in a specialized form of argument that has fixed epistemic rules, but whose rules are seldom made explicit within the physics community that uses them. We will then discuss one method of making the epistemic rules of physics explicit for students by using formative assessment rubrics. We will provide some examples of how these rubrics can be implemented in a physics class and how students were able to transfer critical thinking abilities beyond the physics classroom.

Motion-Matching: A Challenge Game to Generate Motion Concepts

Motion is a topic that is taught from elementary grades through to university at various levels of sophistication. It is an area that can be challenging for learning in a conceptually meaningful way, and formal kinematics instruction can sometimes seem dry and boring. Thus, the nature of students initial introduction to motion is important in sparking their interest, shaping their perspective, and developing conceptual understanding of motion. The kinematic concepts we want students to acquire for basic motions are: position, time, speed, direction, velocity, velocity change, change rate, and acceleration, all with respect to a frame of reference. In this article we describe a challenge game used as an “opener” to motion, in which students themselves essentially generate these concepts, in everyday language, from a perceived need for them.

The Specificity Effect: An Example from Refraction

In physics instruction we often begin by presenting students with an abstract principle, and then illustrating the principle with one or more examples. We hope that students will use the examples to refine their understanding of the principle and be able to transfer the principle to new situations. However, research in cognitive science has shown that students’ understanding of a new principle may become bound up with the example(s) used to illustrate it. We report on a study with physics students to see if this “specificity effect” was present in their reasoning. The data show that even students who understand and can implement a particular physics principle have a strong tendency to discard that principle when the transfer task appears superficially similar to their training example.

Reading Time as Evidence for Mental Models in Understanding Physics

We present results of a reading study that show the usefulness of probing physics students cognitive processing by measuring reading time. According to contemporary discourse theory, when people read a text, a network of associated inferences is activated to create a mental model. If the reader encounters an idea in the text that conflicts with existing knowledge, the construction of a coherent mental model is disrupted and reading times are prolonged, as measured using a simple self‐paced reading paradigm. We used this effect to study how “non‐Newtonian” and “Newtonian” students create mental models of conceptual systems in physics as they read texts related to the ideas of Newtons third law, energy, and momentum. We found significant effects of prior knowledge state on patterns of reading time, suggesting that students attempt to actively integrate physics texts with their existing knowledge.

In search of alignment: Matching learning goals and class assessments

Traditionally, the goals of physics courses focused more on helping our students master the normative physics knowledge and not so much the process through which this knowledge is constructed. We argue that the process itself is the heart of physics and cannot be separated from the outcome. In this paper, we suggest not only to rethink the goals of the courses but also to rethink the traditional paper and pencil tests. Specifically, we would like to show how the traditional summative assessments could be transformed to match our new learning goals. The work described in the paper is done in the context of ISLE - Investigative Science Learning Environment whose main goal is to connect the process of physics to the final knowledge by engaging students in the activities that mirror scientific practices while they are learning new normative knowledge.