Transforming the junior level: Outcomes from instruction and research in E&M

Abstract

Over the course of four years, we have researched and transformed a key course in the career of an undergraduate physics major-junior-level electricity and magnetism. With the aim of educating our majors based on a more complete understanding of the cognitive and conceptual challenges of upperdivision courses, we used principles of active engagement and learning theory to develop course materials and conceptual assessments. Our research results from student and faculty interviews and observations also informed our approach. We present several measures of the outcomes of this work at the University of Colorado at Boulder and external institutions. Students in the transformed courses achieved higher learning gains compared to those in the traditionally taught courses, particularly in the areas of conceptual understanding and ability to articulate their reasoning about a problem. The course transformations appear to close a gender gap, improving female students' scores on conceptual and traditional assessments so that they are more similar to those of male students. Students enthusiastically support the transformations, and indicate that several course elements provide useful scaffolding in conceptual understanding, as well as physicists' ''habits of mind'' such as problem-solving approaches and work habits. Despite these positive outcomes, student conceptual learning gains do not fully meet faculty expectations, suggesting that it is valuable to further investigate how the content and skills indicative of ''thinking like a physicist'' can be most usefully taught at the upper division.

Transforming a fourth year modern optics course using a deliberate practice framework

“…This work motivated the creation and use of tutorials where the instructor has small groups of students work collaboratively on worksheets that guide them through proper reasoning to overcome misconceptions and gain physical insight or that simply provide supervised practice of key mathematical tools [3,5]. Other upper-division PER work has investigated the improvement of learning outcomes and student attitudes after a careful re-structuring of large parts of the curriculum or of the learning goals of courses [6][7][8]. Two examples of course transformations are the work to implement active learning in an intermediate optics laboratory at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis [9], and the work at Kansas State University to implement the studio format for instruction in an upper-division optics lecture course [10].…”

“…The sole exception is the work from the University of Colorado by Pollock and coworkers. They have carried out a fourth-year study of an upper-division electricity and magnetism course that was transformed using the principle of active engagement [8]. That study reports the results of conceptual tests as well as traditional exam questions for both prereform and postreform student populations.…”

“…"Core" upperdivision courses, such as the third-year course in electricity and magnetism that has been studied extensively at Colorado, involve expertise that is relevant to a set of courses and broader aspects of the undergraduate physics program. As such, it is somewhat messy and time consuming (but very important) to establish the educational goals and objectives, taking into account the variety of perspectives and stakeholders in the outcomes of such courses [8].…”

Re-thinking the Rubric for Grading the CUE: The Superposition Principle

“…Recently, the University of Colorado developed the Colorado Upper-Division Electrostatics (CUE) Diagnostic. [2][3][4][5] One of the primary purposes of the CUE is to "serve as a comparative instrument to assess upper-division E&M courses." 6 The CUE 7 is designed in a pre/post format.…”

Tensions and Trade-offs in Instructional Goals for Physics Courses Aimed at Engineers

“…The few studies that do address this issue typically report that, as compared to traditionally taught students, students in the reformed courses do just as well on traditional exam problems. 7,8 And a few studies report that reform-oriented instruction targeted at conceptual understanding also improved students' traditional problem-solving. 8 But instructor effects might account for some of these results, since more dedicated instructors are perhaps more likely to attempt reforms.…”