Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism

Abstract

The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism ͑E&M͒ courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment ͑BEMA͒. Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curriculum and the Matter & Interactions ͑M&I͒ curriculum. At each university, postinstruction BEMA test averages were significantly higher for the M&I curriculum than for the traditional curriculum. The differences in post-test averages cannot be explained by differences in variables such as preinstruction BEMA scores, grade point average, or SAT Reasoning Test ͑SAT͒ scores. BEMA performance on categories of items organized by subtopic was also compared at one of the universities; M&I averages were significantly higher in each topic. The results suggest that the M&I curriculum is more effective than the traditional curriculum at teaching E&M concepts to students, possibly because the learning progression in M&I reorganizes and augments the traditional sequence of topics, for example, by increasing early emphasis on the vector field concept and by emphasizing the effects of fields on matter at the microscopic level.

Test conceptual de Física cuántica para estudiantes de ingeniería

“…Knight (2003) ha planteado que el conocimiento sobre Física aprendido por los estudiantes es clasificable en tres tipos fundamentales: factual, conceptual y procedimental. Otros investigadores (Bacon y Stewart, 2006;Conway, Cohen y Stanhope, 1992) afirman que el factual no se conserva más allá de un año luego de culminar el curso que se tomó; mientras que investigaciones basadas en tests conceptuales de Física (Francis, Adams y Noonam, 1998;Kohlmyer et al, 2009;McDermoth, Shaffer y Constantinon, 2000;Pollock, 2009) defienden que la durabilidad del conocimiento conceptual aprendido resulta mayor que la del factual. El estudio de Deslauriers y Wieman (2011), apoyado en un test rigurosamente validado, arrojó que los conceptos de Mecánica cuántica aprendidos por estudiantes se muestran prácticamente iguales al cabo de año y medio de culminado el curso; a la vez que se constató que dicho resultado es casi insensible al método de enseñanza usado.…”

What do seniors remember from freshman physics?

“…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.…”

Unexpected attitudinal growth in a course combining reformed curricula

“…By connecting topics through fundamental principles and building models that apply to seemingly very different phenomena, M&I aims to show the connectivity of knowledge in physics [32]. M&I can be used in any class format, from a traditional lecture-based course to a SCALE-UP [37] environment, and its effectiveness has been assessed in various class formats at a variety of institutions [38,39]. The GU implementation combines 1 All names are pseudonyms.…”