What Factors Really Influence Shifts in Students’ Attitudes and Expectations in an Introductory Physics Course?

Marx, Jeffrey; Cummings, Karen

doi:10.1063/1.2508701

Cited by 18 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…The adapted AAPS instrument was prepared by Mason and Singh (2010) based on the Maryland Physics Expectation Survey (Redish et al, 1998), as developed by Marx and Cummings (2007) and Cummings, Lockwood, and Marx (2004) with the purpose of identifying students' epistemological beliefs towards learning physics for the first time. Its validity has already been verified, having been implemented for many beginner and advanced physics students in the United States.…”

Section: Survey Instrumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Academic Survey Concerning High School and University Students’ Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving in Chemistry

Duran¹

2016

INT J ENV SCI ED

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The aim of this study is to reveal differences between attitudes and approaches of students from different types of high school and the first grade of university towards problem solving in chemistry. For this purpose, the scale originally developed by Mason and Singh (2010) to measure students' attitude and approaches towards problem solving in physics (AAPS), was adapted for chemistry. The Attitudes and Approaches to Chemistry Problem Solving (AACPS) scale included Likert-type items and was conducted with 552 students from science (2), regular (2), and vocational (2) high schools, plus one university. No statistically significant difference were found among high schools, but there was between high school and university students, and between female and male students in terms of their attitudes and approaches towards problem solving in chemistry. University students demonstrated more expert-like attitudes towards problem solving, and science and regular high school students were similarly expertlike, while the vocational high school students were rather novice-like. The results obtained through the AAPS physics attitude scale conducted in the same sample group were compared with results of the chemistry scale. Variances between these attitudes and approaches towards problem solving in both chemistry and physics were analyzed and some suggestions made.

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Section: Survey Instrumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Academic Survey Concerning High School and University Students’ Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving in Chemistry

Duran¹

2016

INT J ENV SCI ED

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“…Since research has found relationships between students' beliefs and their performance on the course, studies have focused on this area during the last decade. Except for several studies which have reported gains on the MPEX (e.g., Elby, 2001;Marx and Cummings, 2007), studies in this area generally reported deteriorating post MPEX scores (e.g., Redish et al, 1998;Ornek, Robinson, and Haugan, 2008 Aforementioned studies emphasize the importance of expectations in how students make sense of their world and their learning. If inappropriate expectations play a role in students' common difficulties with introductory calculus-based physics, they need to be tracked and documented in order to help students improve their expectations which may in turn increase their success and enrollment in introductory physics classes.…”

Section: Expectations About Physicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring University Students’ Expectations and Beliefs about Physics and Physics Learning in a Problem-Based Learning Context

Şahin

2009

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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This paper reports the results of an exploratory study aimed to determine university students' expectations and beliefs in a problem-based introductory physics course, how those expectations compare to that of students in other universities, and change as a result of one semester of instruction. In total, 264 freshmen engineering students of Dokuz Eylul University (DEU) in Izmir, Turkey enrolled in the study. The study involved two groups, first group (n = 100) was instructed via modular-based active learning (problembased learning [PBL]) method and second group (n = 164) by traditional lecture method. Data were collected through pre and post application of the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) survey. Students' average favorable and unfavorable percentage scores were determined. The results showed that average favorable scores of both groups were substantially lower than that of experts and that of other university students reported in the literature. Students' favorable scores have dropped significantly after one semester of instruction. PBL and traditional groups displayed similar degree of 'expert' beliefs. The results of this study showed that university students' expectations and beliefs about physics and physics learning have deteriorated as a result of one semester of instruction whether in PBL or traditional context. Implications of the results were discussed.

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“…Furthermore, when introductory students were asked to answer CLASS survey questions from their own and their professors' perspectives, they seemed to be able to respond in a more expertlike manner when considering their professors' point of view, but maintained a less expertlike stance when answering from their own point of view [6]. These trends in student epistemology towards physics and learning physics are difficult to overcome, and relatively few, carefully designed introductory physics courses and curricula are able to produce a positive change in these attitudes [14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Cummings et al [14,17] developed the Attitudes toward Problem Solving Survey (APSS) from the MPEX survey in order to focus specifically on students' attitudes toward physics problem solving [17]. When administered in introductory physics classrooms in three different institution types, the APSS results showed that students' attitudes about problem solving did not improve after instruction, and that attitudes were least expertlike (least favorable) at the large university with a large class size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improved attitudes and approaches to problem solving [14][15][16] often result from strategies that engage students actively in the learning process, e.g., peer instruction [20,21], collaborative group problem solving [22,23], and modeling problem solving in a realistic way such that students understand how the professor must also struggle with a challenging problem if not familiar with the solution [24,25], etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Surveying Turkish high school and university students’ attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving

Balta

Mason

Singh

2016

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Students' attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving can impact how well they learn physics and how successful they are in solving physics problems. Prior research in the U.S. using a validated Attitude and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS) survey suggests that there are major differences between students in introductory physics and astronomy courses and physics experts in terms of their attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving. Here we discuss the validation, administration, and analysis of data for the Turkish version of the AAPS survey for high school and university students in Turkey. After the validation and administration of the Turkish version of the survey, the analysis of the data was conducted by grouping the data by grade level, school type, and gender. While there are no statistically significant differences between the averages of various groups on the survey, overall, the university students in Turkey were more expertlike than vocational high school students. On an item by item basis, there are statistically differences between the averages of the groups on many items. For example, on average, the university students demonstrated less expertlike attitudes about the role of equations and formulas in problem solving, in solving difficult problems, and in knowing when the solution is not correct, whereas they displayed more expertlike attitudes and approaches on items related to metacognition in physics problem solving. A principal component analysis on the data yields item clusters into which the student responses on various survey items can be grouped. A comparison of the responses of the Turkish and American university students enrolled in algebra-based introductory physics courses shows that on more than half of the items, the responses of these two groups were statistically significantly different, with the U.S. students on average responding to the items in a more expertlike manner.

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What Factors Really Influence Shifts in Students’ Attitudes and Expectations in an Introductory Physics Course?

Cited by 18 publications

References 5 publications

An Academic Survey Concerning High School and University Students’ Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving in Chemistry

An Academic Survey Concerning High School and University Students’ Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving in Chemistry

Exploring University Students’ Expectations and Beliefs about Physics and Physics Learning in a Problem-Based Learning Context

Surveying Turkish high school and university students’ attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving

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