Do advanced physics students learn from their mistakes without explicit intervention?

Mason, Andrew J.; Singh, Chandralekha

doi:10.1119/1.3318805

Cited by 79 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Since experts learn from their own mistakes, they are unlikely to make the same mistakes when asked to solve a problem a second time, especially if they have had access to a correct solution. Unfortunately, for many students in physics courses, problem solving is a missed learning opportunity [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Without guidance, students often do not reflect upon the problem solving process after solving problems in order to learn from them nor do they make an effort to learn from their mistakes after the graded problems are returned to them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving performance in quantum mechanics with explicit incentives to correct mistakes

Brown

Mason

Singh

2016

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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An earlier investigation found that the performance of advanced students in a quantum mechanics course did not automatically improve from midterm to final exam on identical problems even when they were provided the correct solutions and their own graded exams. Here, we describe a study, which extended over four years, in which upper-level undergraduate students in a quantum physics course were given four identical problems in both the midterm exam and final exam. Approximately half of the students were given explicit incentives to correct their mistakes in the midterm exam. In particular, they could get back up to 50% of the points lost on each midterm exam problem. The solutions to the midterm exam problems were provided to all students in both groups but those who corrected their mistakes were provided the solution after they submitted their corrections to the instructor. The performance on the same problems on the final exam suggests that students who were given incentives to correct their mistakes significantly outperformed those who were not given an incentive. The incentive to correct the mistakes had greater impact on the final exam performance of students who had not performed well on the midterm exam.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Earlier, Mason and Singh [18] investigated the extent to which upper-level students in quantum mechanics learn from their mistakes. They administered four problems in the same semester twice, on both the midterm and final exams in an upper-level quantum mechanics course.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving performance in quantum mechanics with explicit incentives to correct mistakes

Brown

Mason

Singh

2016

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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“…Indeed, several prior studies have found that many advanced students struggle with the foundational issues in quantum mechanics including measurement (e.g., see [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]). Studies have focused on diverse pedagogical approaches for helping students learn quantum mechanics better (e.g., see [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]), and visualization tools such as QuVIS and QuTIP have been developed to help students develop intuition about quantum mechanical phenomena [23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating and improving student understanding of the probability distributions for measuring physical observables in quantum mechanics

Marshman

Singh

2017

Eur. J. Phys.

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A solid grasp of the probability distributions for measuring physical observables is central to connecting the quantum formalism to measurements. However, students often struggle with the probability distributions of measurement outcomes for an observable and have difficulty expressing this concept in different representations. Here we first describe the difficulties that upper-level undergraduate and PhD students have with the probability distributions for measuring physical observables in quantum mechanics. We then discuss how student difficulties found in written surveys and individual interviews were used as a guide in the development of a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a good grasp of the probability distributions of measurement outcomes for physical observables. The QuILT strives to help students become proficient in expressing the probability distributions for the measurement of physical observables in Dirac notation and in the position representation and be able to convert from Dirac notation to position representation and vice versa. We describe the development and evaluation of the QuILT and findings about the effectiveness of the QuILT from in-class evaluations.

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“…The study of student understanding of advanced topics is becoming increasingly prevalent in physics education research [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Investigating upper-division undergraduate students provides a snapshot of the intellectual journey from novice introductory student to expert physicist that may reveal key components of this transition [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student understanding of the Boltzmann factor

Smith

Mountcastle

Thompson

2015

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Upper Division Physics Courses.] We present results of our investigation into student understanding of the physical significance and utility of the Boltzmann factor in several simple models. We identify various justifications, both correct and incorrect, that students use when answering written questions that require application of the Boltzmann factor. Results from written data as well as teaching interviews suggest that many students can neither recognize situations in which the Boltzmann factor is applicable nor articulate the physical significance of the Boltzmann factor as an expression for multiplicity, a fundamental quantity of statistical mechanics. The specific student difficulties seen in the written data led us to develop a guided-inquiry tutorial activity, centered around the derivation of the Boltzmann factor, for use in undergraduate statistical mechanics courses. We report on the development process of our tutorial, including data from teaching interviews and classroom observations of student discussions about the Boltzmann factor and its derivation during the tutorial development process. This additional information informed modifications that improved students' abilities to complete the tutorial during the allowed class time without sacrificing the effectiveness as we have measured it. These data also show an increase in students' appreciation of the origin and significance of the Boltzmann factor during the student discussions. Our findings provide evidence that working in groups to better understand the physical origins of the canonical probability distribution helps students gain a better understanding of when the Boltzmann factor is applicable and how to use it appropriately in answering relevant questions.

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Do advanced physics students learn from their mistakes without explicit intervention?

Cited by 79 publications

References 36 publications

Improving performance in quantum mechanics with explicit incentives to correct mistakes

Improving performance in quantum mechanics with explicit incentives to correct mistakes

Investigating and improving student understanding of the probability distributions for measuring physical observables in quantum mechanics

Student understanding of the Boltzmann factor

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