Effectiveness of a GUM-compliant course for teaching measurement in the introductory physics laboratory

Pillay, Seshini; Buffler, Andy; Lubben, Fred; Allie, Saalih

doi:10.1088/0143-0807/29/3/024

Cited by 45 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…As with any other aspect of physics teaching and learning, it is possible for students to navigate their way through their laboratory course by relying on surface ͑rote͒ learning of procedures unless students have opportunities to discover that their mental models of scientific measurement may not necessarily be appropriate in the scientific context. A recent evaluation 31 of our course based on the probabilistic framework has shown that we have been significantly more successful in the development of an appropriate conceptual framework of uncertainty in scientific measurement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of a conventional introductory laboratory course on the understanding of measurement

Volkwyn

Allie

Buffler

et al. 2008

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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Conventional physics laboratory courses generally include an emphasis on increasing students' ability to carry out data analysis according to scientific practice, in particular, those aspects that relate to measurement uncertainty. This study evaluates the efficacy of the conventional approach by analyzing the understanding of measurement of freshmen following the physics major sequence, i.e., top achievers, with regard to data collection, data processing, and data comparison, through pre-and postinstruction tests by using an established instrument. The findings show that the laboratory course improved the performance of the majority of students insofar as the more mechanical aspects of data collection and data processing were concerned. However, only about 20% of the cohort of physics majors exhibited a deeper understanding of measurement uncertainty required for data comparison.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of a conventional introductory laboratory course on the understanding of measurement

Volkwyn

Allie

Buffler

et al. 2008

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

Self Cite

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“…There is much research demonstrating the effectiveness of labbased pedagogies at developing skills such as evaluating data and models, dealing with uncertainty and variability in data, and designing experiments [45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

Section: Midterm Exammentioning

confidence: 99%

Value added or misattributed? A multi-institution study on the educational benefit of labs for reinforcing physics content

Holmes

Olsen

Thomas

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encompassed a broad range of student populations and instructional styles. The nine courses studied had two key things in common: the labs aimed to reinforce the content presented in lectures, and the labs were optional. By comparing the performance of students who did and did not take the labs (with careful normalization for selection effects), we found universally and precisely no added value to learning course content from taking the labs as measured by course exam performance. This work should motivate institutions and departments to reexamine the goals and conduct of their lab courses, given their resource-intensive nature. We show why these results make sense when looking at the comparative mental processes of students involved in research and instructional labs, and offer alternative goals and instructional approaches that would make lab courses more educationally valuable.

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“…For courses where skills development is the primary focus, students' performance on tests of conceptual mastery becomes less important than practical assessments of students' ability to, for example, make measurements and collect and interpret accurate data [3,10]. With a few exceptions [11,12], research-based assessments of students' laboratory skills are virtually nonexistent in the literature around laboratory course instruction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing skills versus reinforcing concepts in physics labs: Insight from a survey of students’ beliefs about experimental physics

Wilcox

Lewandowski

2017

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Physics laboratory courses have been generally acknowledged as an important component of the undergraduate curriculum, particularly with respect to developing students' interest in, and understanding of, experimental physics. There are a number of possible learning goals for these courses including reinforcing physics concepts, developing laboratory skills, and promoting expert-like beliefs about the nature of experimental physics. However, there is little consensus among instructors and researchers interested in the laboratory learning environment as to relative importance of these various learning goals. Here, we contribute data to this debate through the analysis of students' responses to the laboratory-focused assessment known as the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS). Using a large, national data set of students' responses, we compare students' E-CLASS performance in classes in which the instructor self-reported focusing on developing skills, reinforcing concepts, or both. As the classification of courses was based on instructor self-report, we also provide additional description of these course with respect to how often students engage in particular activities in the lab. We find that courses that focus specifically on developing lab skills have more expert-like postinstruction E-CLASS responses than courses that focus either on reinforcing physics concepts or on both goals. Within first-year courses, this effect is larger for women. Moreover, these findings hold when controlling for the variance in postinstruction scores that is associated with preinstruction E-CLASS score, student major, and student gender.

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Effectiveness of a GUM-compliant course for teaching measurement in the introductory physics laboratory

Cited by 45 publications

References 25 publications

Impact of a conventional introductory laboratory course on the understanding of measurement

Impact of a conventional introductory laboratory course on the understanding of measurement

Value added or misattributed? A multi-institution study on the educational benefit of labs for reinforcing physics content

Developing skills versus reinforcing concepts in physics labs: Insight from a survey of students’ beliefs about experimental physics

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