Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
I. INTRODUCTION
020105-1
The TIP tutorial for N3 was used for the control group for
our study due to the use of TIP tutorials in the rest of the
course. The TIP tutorial emphasizes a process of eliciting
student responses, confronting incorrect answers, and resolving inconsistencies as a way of dealing with student
misconceptions.3,15 The students are presented with a situation in which objects of unequal mass are pushed by an external force, where the external force acts on a large mass
that is in contact with and pushes on a small mass. In the
tutorial, students must draw free-body diagrams for each object and make their diagrams consistent with the motion of
the system of objects. Different physical situations are studied, including constant speed motion and accelerated motion.
For comparative reasons, we note that the TIP tutorial contains only pushing situations.
020105-2
did not fit into these categories, but such occurrences were
rare and did not merit an additional category. Though defined
independently, our categories are very similar to the contextual features developed by Bao, Hogg, and Zollman.21
All pretest and post-test homework and examination assessments were the same for all students regardless of instruction.
The pretest and homework questions came from materials
accompanying the ABT tutorial and contained both pushing
and collision situations.7 The students completed the pretest
during the first ten minutes of the first tutorial period. Thus,
all students for whom we have pretest data also participated
in the tutorials, and our matched data include only data from
students who were in tutorials. At the end of the second
tutorial period, students were given the homework. They had
approximately one week to complete it.
The examination question was developed locally and contained only a pushing situation this was the motivation for
adding the pushing situation to the OST tutorial. The question was administered as part of an 11-question four open
response, seven multiple choice midterm examination approximately two weeks after the tutorials had been completed. Students were required to answer the question on N3.
The Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation17 was administered at the beginning and end of the semester as part of
the regular course work. The N3 cluster of the FMCE contains both pushing and collision situations. We compared incoming student performance on the overall scores of the
FMCE to show that students were generally equal before
instruction.
IV. DATA ANALYSIS
020105-3
exerts on A and giving the appropriate incorrect explanation could be classified as using the ADF. The ADF was the
most commonly used incorrect reasoning in our study.
2. Velocity dependence facet
The velocity dependence facet VDF arises from a confusion between velocity and acceleration. Students often
think of force as an intrinsic property of a body in motion
similar to momentum rather than a product of the interaction of two bodies.17,22
In pushing situations, a student might express the thought
that the forces the bodies exert on each other are equal only
if the two bodies are moving at a constant velocity. The VDF
would lead to a correct answer for incorrect reasons. In collision situations, a student might discuss the force of a moving car being transferred or imparted to a stationary one as it
starts to move. Applications of the VDF are relatively rare in
our study.
3. Mass dependence facet
We, like Bao et al.,21 have found that students may use
two or more of these facets in situations dealing with N3. A
more massive object smashing into a smaller, stationary object might elicit all three facets in a single problem. In such
situations, students may not completely describe their reasoning because each facet leads to a consistent result. We
have found that it is easier to determine which facets students used in questions where the application of different
facets yields conflicting results. For example, in Fig. 2, a
student guided by the ADF will likely state that object A
exerts more force on B than B exerts on A, while a student
guided by the MDF will state just the opposite. It is possible
that students will give the correct answer by compensating
between the two arguments: the ADF and MDF balance such
that forces exerted are equal. We find that, in written explanations, students only rarely write down an explanation that
uses more than one type of facet. Further work in this area is
warranted, especially in studying the existence of false positives in standardized test results like the FMCE.
B. Coding student extended response answers
TIP
ABT
OST
Push
Total
Standard deviation
Total
34
34
27
1.25
1.28
1.48
3.50
3.12
3.81
1.83
1.67
1.47
020105-4
to determine how each tutorials student performance compared to each of the other tutorials. The threshold for statistical significance for this experiment was set at a probability
level of p 0.05. This indicates a 95% certainty that our data
do not represent a random result, but rather a true difference
in the effectiveness of the tutorials. We used other data
sources to support our conclusions.
C. Analyzing FMCE responses
TABLE II. Mean facet difference score for each tutorial on each
post-test assessment. Larger value indicates more improvement.
The maximum correction value for each assessment is displayed at
the bottom.
TIP
ABT
OST
Maximum
HW
Exam
1.29
0.96
1.86
6
0.94
0.83
1.36
3
020105-5
Main effect
TIP vs ABT
TIP vs OST
ABT vs OST
HW
Exam
0.14
0.42
0.17
0.06
0.04
0.61
0.05
0.01
Second, the TIP and ABT tutorials are very similar, except in
the improvement on use of the ADF. Here, the TIP students
were far behind both the ABT and the OST students. Finally,
all populations had the lowest improvements on use of the
ADF. The FMCE questions on collisions allow for several
ADF-guided responses, while the FMCE questions on pushing obviously include ADF scenarios the one object pushing
the other or resisting the push exerted on it. The ADF seems
to be most difficult for students to address in their thinking.
020105-6
Main effect
TIP vs ABT
TIP vs OST
ABT vs OST
Collision
Total
MDF
ADF
Total
MDF
ADF
0.082
0.240
0.030
0.031
0.008
0.124
0.003
0.005
0.121
XXX
XXX
XXX
0.011
0.113
0.002
0.007
0.004
0.087
0.004
0.002
0.071
0.169
0.032
0.014
020105-7
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
implementing the tutorials and gathering data: Jeffrey Morgan, John Thompson, Eleanor Sayre, Andrew Paradis, R.
Padraic Springuel, Michael Murphy, Brandon Bucy, Michael
Dudley, Elizabeth Bianchi, Glen Davenport, Yokiko Muira,
N. D. Finkelstein and S. J. Pollock, Replicating and understanding successful innovations: Implementing tutorials in introductory physics, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 1, 010101 2005.
2 L. C. McDermott and E. F. Redish, Resource letter: PER-1: Physics education research, Am. J. Phys. 67, 755 1999.
3
L. C. McDermott, Millikan Lecture 1990: What we teach and
what is learnedclosing the gap, Am. J. Phys. 59, 301 1991.
4 L. C. McDermott, Oersted Medal Lecture 2001: Physics education researchthe key to student learning, Am. J. Phys. 69,
1127 2001.
5 L. C. McDermott, P. S. Shaffer, and the University of Washingtons Physics Education Group, Tutorials in Introductory Physics Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002.
6 E. F. Redish, J. M. Saul, and R. N. Steinberg, On the effectiveness
of active-engagement microcomputer-based laboratories, Am. J.
Phys. 65, 45 1997.
7 M. C. Wittmann, R. N. Steinberg, and E. F. Redish, ActivityBased Tutorials Volume 1: Introductory Physics John Wiley &
Sons, New York, 2004.
8
M. C. Wittmann, R. N. Steinberg, and E. F. Redish, Investigating
student understanding of quantum physics: Spontaneous models
of conductivity, Am. J. Phys. 68, 218 2002.
9 M. C. Wittmann, R. N. Steinberg, and E. F. Redish, Understanding and affecting student reasoning about sound waves, Int. J.
Sci. Educ. 25, 991 2003.
10
D. Hammer and A. Elby, Tapping epistemological resources for
learning physics, J. Learn. Sci. 12, 53 2003.
11 D. Hammer, Student resources for learning introductory physics,
Am. J. Phys. 68, Physics, Education, Research, Suppl., S52
2000.
12
A. Elby, Helping physics students learn how to learn, Am. J.
Phys. 69, Physics, Education, Research, Suppl., S54 2001.
13
This was found to be true for students at UMaine and has been
reported anecdotally at other institutions.
14
M. C. Wittmann, R. N. Steinberg, and E. F. Redish, Making sense
of students making sense of mechanical waves, Phys. Teach. 37,
15 1999.
15 L. C. McDermott and P. S. Shaffer, Research as a guide for curriculum development: An example from introductory electricity.
020105-8