Mel S. Sabella

Examining the Effectiveness of Clickers on Promoting Learning by Tracking the Evolution of Student Responses

Personal Response Systems or clickers have been used for a number of years to help create active learning environments in the lecture classroom. Researchers have shown that the use of clickers stimulate student‐student and student‐lecturer interaction. In addition, students value the use of clickers and feel that these devices contribute to their understanding. Even though clickers have been used for quite some time, there are relatively few research studies focusing on how student knowledge is enhanced through the use of clickers. To contribute to this body of research, we compared student responses on exam questions to similar or identical clicker questions that were presented during lecture. The analysis of the responses to both clicker and exam questions show how individual student knowledge evolves during instruction. Although there is evidence of improvement during lecture, many students were unable to respond correctly when the questions were posed on the exam, despite the similarity in the questions.

Evidence of Intuitive and Formal Knowledge in Student Responses: Examples from the Context of Dynamics

When presented with a question, students activate a set of knowledge, or schema, that they use to respond to the question. For many instructors, one of the goals of the introductory physics course is to help students build robust schemas of formal knowledge that are activated for a given task. In this paper, we present evidence that suggests that even when schemas of formal knowledge are formed, students often struggle to activate this knowledge. We focus on the analysis of interviews with two introductory physics students concerning the topic of dynamics. We also demonstrate that the act of explaining, during the interview, has a profound impact on the students’ responses.

Using the resources of the student at the urban, comprehensive university to develop an effective instructional environment

Physics Education Researchers have provided instructors with (1) tools to assess student learning, (2) details on the state of student knowledge, and (3) instructional materials and learning environments that have proven to be effective in promoting understanding. Unfortunately, the vast majority of this work has centered on students and instruction at the traditional research university. As instructors begin to implement innovative instructional materials, and as researchers begin to investigate student learning with diverse populations, complex differences emerge. The use of traditional PER tools in non‐traditional environments, such as the urban, comprehensive university, often leads to a very narrow picture of student development. Often, this limited view highlights deficiencies in learning and fails to reveal the strengths and resources of this population. In this paper we highlight issues we face with some of the traditional research tools and provide evidence for the resources we have found with ou...

The Chi-Sci Scholars Program: Developing Community and Challenging Racially Inequitable Measures of Success at a Minority-Serving Institution on Chicago’s Southside

Ensuring that all students who want to pursue degrees and careers in science can do so is an important goal of a number of undergraduate STEM equity programs throughout the United States. Many of these programs, which promote diversity and the importance of diversity in science, directly address the 2012 PCAST report, which notes that “1 million additional STEM Professionals will be needed within the next decade” and “women and members of minority groups now constitute approximately 70% of college students, but earn only 45 percent of STEM degrees.” The PCAST report also indicates that these students “leave STEM majors at higher rates than others and offer an expanding pool of untapped talent.” Many of these programs recognize that it is important to provide students with a variety of support: financial, mentoring, research-based instruction, cohort development, and specific activities tailored to target population strengths and needs.

Cultural toolkits in the urban physics learning community

Chicago State University has been involved in curriculum development, teacher preparation, and education research that targets urban physics learners on the south-side of Chicago. Through this work we have begun to recognize specific cultural norms that our students bring to the classroom. These cultural norms appear to help our students establish strong communities in classes. Because of the homogeneity of our population, with most students coming from within a five-mile radius of our campus, there are a set of shared experiences that help establish a level of trust and sense of community that manifests itself in the science learning environment. Aspects of community play a major role in the preparation of teachers. In this paper we discuss our understanding of CSU student culture, its importance in the development of community, and its role in the preparation of future physics teachers. [1]

What We Learned by Moving Beyond Content Knowledge and Diversifying Our Research Agenda

The Physics Program at Chicago State University has been investigating student learning for the past eight years in an effort to construct an effective instructional environment for the urban physics student. In our initial work, the targeted analysis on student content understanding caused us to miss the specific attitudes, thinking, and reasoning skills present in our students. As our research focus began to shift to identifying these other skills, we began to identify specific student resources that foster an active learning environment in the introductory physics course. In addition, we began to uncover a set of coherent, robust content knowledge that we had previously overlooked. Research studies on collaboration in the classroom and work on identifying intuitive and formal reasoning has since provided a rich, complex picture of student understanding and has informed the development of our instructional environment.

Providing Support to Inner-city Students and Teachers Through the Physics Van Inservice Institute

There are many programs for the professional development of high school physics teachers that have proven to be effective in preparing these teachers to conduct inquiry-based activities in the classroom. In this paper, we describe a small-scale professional development program called the Physics Van Inservice Institute. During the program, teachers are engaged in inquiry-based physics modules and are then able to borrow the equipment so that they can conduct the activities in their own classes.

A Collaboration Between University and High School in Preparing Physics Teachers: Chicago State University's Teacher Immersion Institute

Because of the diverse character of colleges and universities throughout the United States, it is naive to believe that a one-size-fits-all model of teacher preparation aligns with specific resources and student population needs. Exploring innovative models that challenge traditional programs is now being encouraged by organizations such as the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society. Chicago State University (CSU) is now exploring exciting changes to its physics teacher preparation program by utilizing the expertise of Chicago Area teachers and early teaching experiences for students interested in, but not yet committed to, the physics teaching profession.

Understanding and Encouraging Effective Collaboration in Introductory Physics Courses

Anecdotal evidence from the introductory physics classrooms at Chicago State University suggests that our students view collaboration as an important tool in their learning. Despite this, students often need additional instruction and support in order for collaboration to be effective. In order to aid students in establishing effective collaborations we may be able to capitalize on the fact that students at CSU readily accept the inquiry approach to instruction. In this paper, we present the initial stage of this work. Specifically, we have begun to videotape student interactions in the classroom, interview students about the nature of learning, and develop and administer instruments that assess the value students place on the use of guided inquiry. By utilizing a specific criteria and analyzing the occurrence of specific behaviors in the classroom we can determine the effectiveness of collaboration during group work. Responses regarding how students value the use of questions in instruction indicate the ...