Using time-on-task measurements to understand student performance in a physics class: A four-year study

Abstract

Student use of out-of-class time was measured for four years in the introductory second-semester calculus-based physics course at the University of Arkansas. Two versions of the course were presented during the time of the measurement. In both versions, the total out-of-class time a student invested in the course explained less than 1% of the variance in test average and in normalized gain on the Conceptual Survey in Electricity and Magnetism. The details of how students used their out-of-class time explained from 21% to 36% of the variance in test average and 19% to 37% of the variance in normalized gain. The amount of time spent on the course increased as the course was made more difficult, but less than would be expected based on the changes in the course. Students changed their allocation of out-of-class time based on their performance within the course as the course progressed.

Teaching and physics education research: bridging the gap

“…These students do better than students who summarize text passages before hearing the lecture, though time-on-task is equal for both groups. Lastly, possibly in agreement, Stewart et al found that students' additional time input for new assignments does not scale: when the length of homework and reading assignments increased in their physics course, students' selfreported study time did increase, but the increase was slower than a linear extrapolation based on the number of characters in the reading assignment or number of steps required to solve the homework problems (Stewart et al 2012). This could be because students choose to spend a fixed amount of time on their studies and, when assignments increase, students respond by shortening the time spent on any single course aspect.…”

“…Time diary studies ask students to document their studying on a regular basis, often including the specific study activity (Kember et al 1995, Zuriff 2003, Ruiz-Gallardo et al 2011, Stewart et al 2012. Beyond better estimates of student study time, time diaries can give insight into what students focus on during their study time, students' study approach in researchbased and traditionally taught courses, and whether students are multi-tasking while trying to study.…”

Behavioral self-regulation in a physics class

“…Only the results of a questions pertaining to general out-of-class time use were used for this study. A general analysis of the responses for semesters 1 to 8 was presented in Stewart, Stewart, and Taylor [3].…”

“…The students included in the analysis were a somewhat different population from the full population of the class; they have somewhat higher attendance and test scores than the full population. For a more complete analysis of the two populations, see Stewart, Stewart, and Taylor [3].…”

“…The amount of time invested in academic activities outside of the classroom and the kind of activities performed accounts for 21% to 36% of the variance in the test averages and for 19% to 37% of the variance in the normalized gains [3] on the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) [4]. The amount of variance explained by TOT is comparable to the variance in class performance which is explained by logical reasoning ability (19% [5]-24% [6]), mathematical reasoning ability (12% [5]-26% [7]), or physics pretest score (1% [8]-30% [7]).…”