Developing and assessing a force and motion learning progression
Sci Ed 93: 389-421, 2009
Alicia C. Alonzo, Jeffrey T. Steedle
The full set of force and motion items are available by contacting the first author.
Learning progressions are ordered descriptions of students' understanding of a given concept. In this paper, we describe the iterative process of developing a force and motion learning progression and associated assessment items. We report on a pair of studies designed to explore the diagnosis of students' learning progression levels. First, we compare the use of ordered multiple-choice (OMC) and open-ended (OE) items for assessing students relative to the learning progression. OMC items appear to provide more precise diagnoses of students' learning progression levels and to be more valid, eliciting students' conceptions more similarly to cognitive interviews. Second, we explore evidence bearing on two challenges concerning reliability and validity of level diagnoses: the consistency with which students respond to items set in different contexts and the ways in which students interpret and use language in responding to items. As predicted, students do not respond consistently to similar problems set in different contexts. Although the language used in OMC items generally seems to reflect student thinking, misinterpretation of the language in items may lead to inaccurate diagnoses for a subset of students. Both issues are less problematic for classroom applications than for use of learning progressions in large-scale testing.
UPDATE: This paper had been previously posted as an online first publication, 9/3/08. The URL and citation have been updated.
Showing posts with label kinematics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kinematics. Show all posts
2009-04-29
2008-02-07
Marshall Carrejo - JRST 2008
Students' mathematical modeling of motion
J. Res. Sci. Teach 45: 153-173, 2008.
Jill A. Marshall, David J. Carrejo
email: marshall@mail.utexas.edu
We present results of an investigation of university students' development of mathematical models of motion in a physical science course for preservice teachers and graduate students in science and mathematics education. Although some students were familiar with the standard concepts of position, velocity, and acceleration from physics classes, most students had difficulty using these concepts to characterize actual or hypothetical motions. Furthermore, some students developed their own nonstandard method of describing accelerated motion in terms of changes in the average velocity, from the start of the motion up to a given time. This is in contrast to the physics community's use of the acceleration construct, defined in terms of changes in the instantaneous velocity, to describe such motion. Although the change in average velocity is not typically identified as an important construct in traditional physics texts, some students found it intuitively appealing, and were able to use it successfully to describe and predict motion. We conclude that by focusing on standard constructs, and ignoring possible intuitive ways that students might view motion, standard kinematics instruction may miss an opportunity to maximize student understanding.
© 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Received: 27 October 2006; Accepted: 5 March 2007
DOI: 10.1002/tea.20210
J. Res. Sci. Teach 45: 153-173, 2008.
Jill A. Marshall, David J. Carrejo
email: marshall@mail.utexas.edu
We present results of an investigation of university students' development of mathematical models of motion in a physical science course for preservice teachers and graduate students in science and mathematics education. Although some students were familiar with the standard concepts of position, velocity, and acceleration from physics classes, most students had difficulty using these concepts to characterize actual or hypothetical motions. Furthermore, some students developed their own nonstandard method of describing accelerated motion in terms of changes in the average velocity, from the start of the motion up to a given time. This is in contrast to the physics community's use of the acceleration construct, defined in terms of changes in the instantaneous velocity, to describe such motion. Although the change in average velocity is not typically identified as an important construct in traditional physics texts, some students found it intuitively appealing, and were able to use it successfully to describe and predict motion. We conclude that by focusing on standard constructs, and ignoring possible intuitive ways that students might view motion, standard kinematics instruction may miss an opportunity to maximize student understanding.
© 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Received: 27 October 2006; Accepted: 5 March 2007
DOI: 10.1002/tea.20210
2007-12-03
Springuel Wittmann Thompson - Phys Rev 2007
Applying clustering to statistical analysis of student reasoning about two-dimensional kinematics
R. Padraic Springuel, Michael C. Wittmann, and John R. Thompson
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research, College of Education and Human Development, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, USA
Received 24 May 2007; published 3 December 2007
We use clustering, an analysis method not presently common to the physics education research community, to group and characterize student responses to written questions about two-dimensional kinematics. Previously, clustering has been used to analyze multiple-choice data; we analyze free-response data that includes both sketches of vectors and written elements. The primary goal of this paper is to describe the methodology itself; we include a brief overview of relevant results.
©2007 The American Physical Society
URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v3/e020107
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.3.020107
PACS: 01.40.Fk, 01.40.gf
R. Padraic Springuel, Michael C. Wittmann, and John R. Thompson
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research, College of Education and Human Development, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, USA
Received 24 May 2007; published 3 December 2007
We use clustering, an analysis method not presently common to the physics education research community, to group and characterize student responses to written questions about two-dimensional kinematics. Previously, clustering has been used to analyze multiple-choice data; we analyze free-response data that includes both sketches of vectors and written elements. The primary goal of this paper is to describe the methodology itself; we include a brief overview of relevant results.
©2007 The American Physical Society
URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v3/e020107
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.3.020107
PACS: 01.40.Fk, 01.40.gf
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