Mastery-style homework exercises in introductory physics courses: Implementation matters

Abstract

Encouraged by positive clinical results at the University of Illinois, mastery-style homework was integrated into a large semester-long preparatory physics course via an online homework system that used narrated animated video solutions as correctives. This paper discusses the impact and evolution of the homework in its first two years. The first iteration revealed that students were frustrated and did not engage with the system in an effective way. Intending to reduce that frustration and quell negative behavior, the mastery requirement was relaxed, transfer between versions was reduced, and the addition of a direct discussion with students about the homework were implemented in its second year. The results showed that details of implementation can substantially affect students' behavior; large and statistically significant effects were observed as a reduction in frustration (with self-identified "frustrated" students dropping from 60% in 2014 to 30% in 2015) and improvement in performance (average student mastery rate of 59% to 69%).

Comparing student behavior in mastery and conventional style online physics homework

“…An alternative to this conventional style of instruction, mastery learning, as proposed by Bloom [3] and Keller [4], has been adopted by instructors across multiple disciplines [5]. In mastery learning, the conventional chapters are broken down into a sequence of smaller units, where each unit focuses on developing a single skill or concept.…”

“…By enabling students to spend different amounts of time and effort on learning, it is proposed that significantly more students in a mastery learning condition will achieve the desired level of mastery. There have been several recent attempts at implementing mastery style online homework in introductory physics courses with encouraging outcomes [4,6,7].…”

Effective Grain-Size of Mastery-Style Online Homework Levels

“…Mastery-style learning has been used in physics for basic skills recently by Mikula and Heckler [4], but there has been little recent study of mastery-style homework for holistic physics content since a short movement in the 1970s. For interested readers, a more thorough history of mastery-style implementation is summarized in the authors' previous work [5].…”

“…At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, mastery-style online homework replaced traditional online homework in a preparatory course in 2014 [5]. The course was created for engineering students who are identified by a diagnostic test as being underprepared for the calculus-based physics sequence, usually due to deficient or inconsistent high school physics preparation.…”

“…Since the original implementation, each iteration of the course gives new opportunity to refine and improve the content and delivery of the mastery-style homework to better serve students. In particular, an emphasis on student affect to temper frustration and incentivize productive behavior was a major consideration from the first year to the second [5]. Unfortunately, there are still many homework levels that the majority of students are unable to master; these levels are a natural place to look for the limits of mastery-style learning.…”