Do they stay fixed?

Francis, Gloria; Adams, Jeffrey P.; Noonan, Elizabeth J.

doi:10.1119/1.879933

Cited by 30 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…There have been a few studies [4][5][6][7][8], most quite recent, suggesting that conceptual knowledge in physics may be retained better than the primarily factual knowledge measured in retention studies such as Ref. [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…An early study by Francis et al [4] showed little drop in scores on the Force Concept Inventory after some years for a self-selected set of volunteers. It is unknown how much the volunteers may have reencountered the material during the retention interval, and the absence of uncertainties or standard deviations for the sample populations in the publication prevent quantitative conclusions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Learning and retention of quantum concepts with different teaching methods

Deslauriers

Wieman

2011

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

104

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We measured mastery and retention of conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics in a modern physics course. This was studied for two equivalent cohorts of students taught with different pedagogical approaches using the Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey. We measured the impact of pedagogical approach both on the original conceptual learning and on long-term retention. The cohort of students who had a very highly rated traditional lecturer scored 19% lower than the equivalent cohort that was taught using interactive engagement methods. However, the amount of retention was very high for both cohorts, showing only a few percent decrease in scores when retested 6 and 18 months after completion of the course and with no exposure to the material in the interim period. This high level of retention is in striking contrast to the retention measured for more factual learning from university courses and argues for the value of emphasizing conceptual learning

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Learning and retention of quantum concepts with different teaching methods

Deslauriers

Wieman

2011

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

104

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“…A second group (with learners labeled 2,5,7,9,10,14,16,21,23,25,26,29), characterized by an initial (postinstruction) similarity index lower than 0.6 with respect to the ex-type, has further lowered these values by increasing the similarity towards the de-type profile. A final group (with students labeled 3, 4,8,18,20,27,28), all starting with ex-type similarities higher than 0.6, after four years, essentially remained with the same similarities with respect to the three typologies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a quantitative analysis about the long term stability of student strengthening of reasoning skills for everyday problem solving in thermal science is presented. Only two previous studies attempted to address this issue some time ago by investigating the long term learning effects of "active engagement" methods in mechanics courses at university, providing promising results about the achievement of permanent change in students' conceptual framework up to three years after instruction [28,29]. We invited the same students from the first studynow mostly graduated professionals-to answer the same questionnaire they answered four years ago in the researchlike context of the "Mission to Mars" OI-based workshop.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long term stability of learning outcomes in undergraduates after an open-inquiry instruction on thermal science

Adorno

Pizzolato

Fazio

2018

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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This paper investigates the efficacy of an open-inquiry approach to achieve a long term stability of physics instruction. This study represents the natural continuation of a research project started four years ago when a sample of thirty engineering undergraduates, having already attended traditional university physics instruction, were involved in a six-week long learning experience of open-inquiry research activities within the highly motivating context of developing a thermodynamically efficient space base on Mars. Four years later, we explore the effectiveness of that learning experience by analyzing the outcomes that the students achieved by answering again the same questionnaire that was administered them both prior to and immediately after those activities. As we did in the first work, students' answers were classified within three epistemological profiles. Now, a comparison among students' outcomes during the three phases, namely, preinstruction, postinstruction, and after four years has been carried out. Immediately after the open-inquiry experience, the students obtained significant benefits in terms of the strengthening of their practical and reasoning abilities, by proficiently applying the learned concepts to face and solve real-world problem situations. In this study, the students' answers do not highlight any significant regress towards their preinstruction profiles. The global robustness of the teaching strategy adopted four years ago is confirmed by a statistically significant comparison with a control group of students who experienced the same curricular instruction except for the open inquiry-based workshop. Nevertheless, some changes have been observed and discussed in the light of the answers the students provided to a short interview regarding their studying or working experiences across the four-year temporal window.

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“…Many studies of retention on other standardized instruments testing conceptual physics knowledge [9][10][11][12] show little or no loss of knowledge over retention intervals ranging from several months to several years. Indeed, this is consistent with our finding that the average score on the MBT among the retest participants is remarkably stable over the interval from the completion of freshman mechanics to graduation.…”

Section: Conclusion a Quantitative Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do seniors remember from freshman physics?

Pawl

Barrantes

Pritchard

et al. 2012

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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We have given a group of 56 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) seniors who took mechanics as freshmen a written test similar to the final exam they took in their freshman course as well as the Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT) and the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS). Students in majors unrelated to physics scored 60% lower on the written analytic part of the final than they would have as freshmen. The mean score of all participants on the MBT was insignificantly changed from their average on the posttest they took as freshmen. However, the students' performance on 9 of the 26 MBT items (with 6 of the 9 involving graphical kinematics) represents a gain over their freshman posttest score (a normalized gain of about 70%), while their performance on the remaining 17 questions is best characterized as a loss of approximately 50% of the material learned in the freshman course. On multiple-choice questions covering advanced physics concepts, the mean score of the participants was about 50% lower than the average performance of freshmen. Although attitudinal survey results indicate that almost half the seniors feel the specific mechanics course content is unlikely to be useful to them, a significant majority (75%-85%) feel that physics does teach valuable problem solving skills, and an overwhelming majority believe that mechanics should remain a required course at MIT.

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Do they stay fixed?

Abstract: We report the results of a longitudinal study of three nonmajor introductory classes that achieved relatively high FCI gains (g=1.5) using an inquiry-based tutorial approach. Original FCI gains persisted as many as four years following instruction.

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

Learning and retention of quantum concepts with different teaching methods

Learning and retention of quantum concepts with different teaching methods

Long term stability of learning outcomes in undergraduates after an open-inquiry instruction on thermal science

What do seniors remember from freshman physics?

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