The impact of the pre-instructional cognitive profile on learning gain and final exam of physics courses: a case study

The case study described in this paper investigates the relationship among some pre-instructional knowledge, the learning gain and the final physics performance of computing engineering students in the introductory physics course. The results of the entrance engineering test (EET) have been used as a measurement of reading comprehension, logic and mathematics skills and basic physics knowledge of a sample of 47 Computing Engineering freshmen at the University of Palermo (Italy). These data give a significant picture of the initial knowledge status of a student choosing engineering studies. The students' physics learning gain has been calculated using a standardized tool in mechanics: the force concept inventory (FCI). The analysis shows that mathematical and physical background contribute to achieve a good final preparation in physics courses of engineering faculties; however the students' learning gain in physics is independent of students' initial level of mathematics skills and physics knowledge. Initial logic skills and reading comprehension abilities are not significant factors for the learning physics gain and the performance on physics courses.     

The Transition from School to University in Mathematics: Which Influence Do School-Related Variables Have?

Particularly in mathematics, the transition from school to university often appears to be a substantial hurdle in the individual learning biography. Differences between the characters of school mathematics and scientific university mathematics as well as different demands related to the learning cultures in both institutions are discussed as possible reasons for this phenomenon. If these assumptions hold, the transition from school to university could not be considered as a continuous mathematical learning path because it would require a realignment of students’ learning strategies. In particular, students could no longer rely on the effective use of school-related individual resources like knowledge, interest, or self-concept. Accordingly, students would face strong challenges in mathematical learning processes at the beginning of their mathematics study at university. In this contribution, we examine these assumptions by investigating the role of individual mathematical learning prerequisites of 182 first-semester university students majoring in mathematics. In line with the assumptions, our results indicate only a marginal influence of school-related mathematical resources on the study success of the first semester. In contrast, specific precursory knowledge related to scientific mathematics and students’ abilities to develop adequate learning strategies turn out as main factors for a successful transition phase. Implications for the educational practice will be discussed.     

An investigation of relationships between students’ mathematical problem-posing abilities and their mathematical content knowledge

The importance of students’ problem-posing abilities in mathematics has been emphasized in the K-12 curricula in the USA and China. There are claims that problem-posing activities are helpful in developing creative approaches to mathematics. At the same time, there are also claims that students’ mathematical content knowledge could be highly related to creativity in mathematics, too. This paper reports on a study that investigated USA and Chinese high school students’ mathematical content knowledge, their abilities in mathematical problem posing, and the relationships between students’ mathematical content knowledge and their problem-posing abilities in mathematics.     

A disaggregated investigation of learning functions in introductory economics

Few evaluations of specific curriculum decisions or teaching methods have investigated their potential impact on the learning performance of students with different characteristics. This paper attempts to address that void by estimating learning functions for different subgroups of students.To investigate the potential variations in student learning processes, a sample of freshmen economic students from a state university is disaggregated by the students' gender, previous knowledge of economics, attitudes toward economics and innate abilities as measured by ACT. ACT English and ACT Mathematics. Differences in the regression coefficients of the segmented samples are then tested using the Chow Test.     

An appraisal of an online tutorial system for the teaching and learning of engineering physics in conjunction with contextual physics and mathematics,and relevant mathematics

The number of students entering engineering schools in Australian universities has increased tremendously over the last few years because of the Australian Federal Government's policy of increasing the participation rates of Higher School Certificate students and students from low social economic status backgrounds in the tertiary sector. They now come with a diverse background of skills, motivations and prior knowledge. It is imperative that new methods of teaching and learning be developed. This paper describes an online tutorial system used in conjunction with contextual physics and mathematics, and the revision of the relevant mathematical knowledge at the appropriate time before a new topic is introduced in the teaching and learning of engineering physics. Taken as a whole, this study shows that students not only improved their final examination results but there was also an increase in the retention rate of first-year engineering students which has financial implications for the university.     

The impact of problem-based learning on engineering students’ beliefs about physics and conceptual understanding of energy and momentum

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) on freshmen engineering students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning (referred to as epistemological beliefs) and conceptual understanding of physics. The multiple-choice test of energy and momentum concepts and the Colorado learning attitudes about science survey were used to collect the data. The sample consisted of 142 students enrolled in the PBL and traditional lecture classes in the engineering faculty of a state university in Turkey. The analyses showed that the PBL group obtained significantly higher conceptual learning gains than the traditional group and the change (improvement) in the PBL group students’ beliefs from the pre- to post test were significantly larger than that of the traditional group. The results revealed that beliefs were correlated with conceptual understanding. Suggestions are presented regarding the implementation of the PBL approach.     

英语专业新生语言学习观念差异的影响因素分析

通过对某大学英语专业新生语言学习观念的问卷调查,采用定量分析方法分析了新生语言学习观念差异背后的原因.分析结果表明,当今大学生对语言学习本质的理解更全面,他们意识到语言学习不仅要学语法、词汇而且要提高综合技能,尤其是交际能力的培养;他们的工具型动机较弱而融入型动机较强;不同外语水平的学生只在语言学习本质、语言学习动机观念上存在显著性差异.     

Graphic abilities in relation to mathematical and scientific ability in adolescents

Background:?The study investigated a small range of cognitive abilities, related to visual-spatial intelligence, in adolescents. This specific range of cognitive abilities was termed ‘graphic abilities’ and defined as a range of abilities to visualise and think in three dimensions, originating in the domain of visual-spatial intelligence, and related to visual perception and the ability to represent space. The educational importance of graphic abilities has received minimal attention from the educational community and, consequently, plays a limited role in educational practice.

Purpose:?In order to understand the particular educational importance of this range of cognitive abilities, we investigated how graphic abilities are connected with the performance and the subject preference of adolescents in several academic areas. Our hypotheses were, first, that there is a high degree of correlation between developed graphic abilities and high performance in mathematics and science, and second, that there is a high degree of correlation between developed graphic abilities and personal subject preference in these two areas.

Sample:?The sample consisted of 60 14-year-old students (30 girls and 30 boys) attending a public secondary school in a small town in northern Greece. The entire sample had followed the same mathematics courses, which did not involve any geometry or spatial representation tasks.

Design and methods:?We identified and defined a specific range of three graphic abilities, related to visual-spatial intelligence, and we investigated these abilities in the sample through several visual-spatial tasks designed for the study and measured the sample's performance in these tasks. The degree of adolescents' graphic performance (that is, the performance in these visual-spatial tasks) was correlated with their performance in mathematics and science and with their subject preference (mathematics, science and language).

Results:?Our findings confirmed both hypotheses. A high degree of correlation was found between developed graphic abilities and high performance in mathematics, and a lower but still significant degree of correlation was found between developed graphic abilities and high performance in science. The findings support the second hypothesis as well, suggesting that children with developed graphic abilities reported that their favourite subject was mathematics and second favourite subject was science.

Conclusions:?The research suggested that there is a particular relation between the level of graphic abilities performance and children's performance and in preference for mathematics and science. That is, children with developed visual perception, visual thought and representational skills are actually better with numbers and physical concepts. This particular relation might be relevant to the overall cognitive development of children, especially with respect to the increasingly developing communication technologies, and it would seem to deserve more attention and extended research from the educational community. The authorial position is that education would gain from a better understanding of: the nature of graphic abilities, how we can develop this range of abilities and how the development of visual thought and graphic expression contributes to several curriculum subjects.     

少数民族地区初等数学与高等数学教学衔接问题的研究

文章从教学思想、知识内容等方面讨论了少数民族地区初等数学与高等数学课堂教学的衔接问题,分析大学新生学习高等数学的困难原因,给教育管理部门、教师与学生提出了一些建议。     

Online educational videos according to specific didactics: the case of mathematics / Los Vídeos educativos en línea desde las didácticas específicas: el caso de las matemáticas

Abstract

The vast number of online educational videos available at the moment has generated an emerging area of research concerning their level of suitability. This study considers the epistemic quality of educational videos on mathematics, focusing on the specific content of directly proportional distributions. A qualitative study is used, based on the application of theoretical and methodological tools from the onto-semiotic approach to knowledge and mathematics instruction, principally the notion of epistemic suitability and the identification of algebraic levels. The sample consists of the 31 most popular videos in Spanish on YouTube? on directly proportional distributions. Analysis reveals interesting results on these kinds of resources. In general, it is observed that they are weak in epistemic suitability, which does not seem to affect their level of popularity. Moreover, the existence of videos with inaccurate arguments or incorrect procedures, together with the diversity of algebraic levels used, indicates that teachers should be careful when selecting them and only recommend those that better suit their students’ needs.     

Online Physics Lab Exercises—a Binational Study on the Transfer of Teaching Resources

In this paper, we present the design and the results of a comparative study that evaluated the success of a transfer of an online-teaching resource between two universities, one in Germany and one in the USA. The teaching resource is an online physics lab that has been used in the physics education of medical students in Germany since 2003. The online lab covers geometrical optics and the optics of the human eye using interactive screen experiments. It was translated and transferred to a university in the USA where it was used and evaluated with a group of pre-health students. In a cross-national study, students’ backgrounds (demographic data, selected cognitive abilities, previous knowledge, and self-concept in physics), students’ attitudes towards the online lab, and their learning gain were compared. The results show significant differences between the German and the US cohorts with regard to students’ backgrounds. Despite these differences, the outcomes are similar, with slightly higher leaning gains for the US students. Students’ attitudes towards the online lab are similar in both countries but tend to be more positive among the US students. The results indicate that the transfer of the online lab to another educational system was successful.     

Impacts of a university–school partnership on middle school students' fractional knowledge: A quasiexperimental study

In this quasiexperimental study, the authors investigated the effects of university within school partnership model, within which faculty members acted as teacher-researchers to improve fractional knowledge among middle school (Grades 5–8) students. Students in nine Grade 6 mathematics classes from two public middle schools in Turkey were assigned to two conditions: University within school model instruction and traditional instruction. Pre- and posttest data showed that the students exposed to instruction through the university within school partnership model significantly outperformed their traditional instruction peers on the fractions test. Results indicated that students made significant gains in fractional knowledge in the experimental classrooms and in different subgroup populations. It was suggested that a substantial amount of mathematical infusion through partnership could have a positive impact on middle school students' fractional knowledge. The educational implications of the study were also discussed.     

新建本科院校设计性物理实验教学研究

设计性物理实验是高校物理实验体系的重要组成部分,与传统的测量性、验证性物理实验相比,设计性物理实验更具开拓性和创新性,对于培养学生的创新精神和实践能力具有重要作用.立足新建本科院校教改实际,从设计性物理实验教学的必要性和可行性出发,就设计性物理实验的教学模式、教学设计进行了探讨.     

Student views regarding online freshmen physics courses

Background: Nationally, many public universities have started to move into the online course and program market that was previously associated with for-profit institutions of higher education. Public university administrators state that students seek the flexibility of online courses. But do students want to take courses online, especially freshmen-level science courses perceived to be difficult?

Purpose: This study investigated student views related to the potential of a physics course they were currently enrolled in being offered online.

Sample: This study took place at a large, public, mid-western university and involved students enrolled in either the first or second semester of a face-to-face flipped physics course for engineering technology majors.

Design and methods: Discussions with students during the semester about their online course experiences and expectations were used to develop the concourse and subsequently the Q sample to perform a Q methodology study about students’ views regarding taking physics courses online. Additional statements for the concourse and Q sample were taken from communications with administrators at the university. In this way, the statements sorted by the students included those from students and those from administrators. Factor analysis of the Q sorts resulted in three factors, each representing a unique perspective. Interpretations of these perspectives included the analyses of the Q sorts, the researcher’s interactions with students and administrators, and students’ written responses regarding their previous online course experiences and their sorting decisions.

Results: Three unique student views emerged were named: keeping it real and face-to-face, Online could be ok depending upon the course and instructor, and Online not for STEM classes. Consensus among the views is also discussed.

Conclusions: Overall, students’ views are negative concerning having physics courses, including labs, online and those views conflict with statements expressed by administrators regarding students’ desires for online courses at the university.     

Development of a Computer-Assisted Instrumentation Curriculum for Physics Students: Using LabVIEW and Arduino Platform

We propose an integrated curriculum to establish essential abilities of computer programming for the freshmen of a physics department. The implementation of the graphical-based interfaces from Scratch to LabVIEW then to LabVIEW for Arduino in the curriculum ‘Computer-Assisted Instrumentation in the Design of Physics Laboratories’ brings rigorous algorithm and syntax protocols together with imagination, communication, scientific applications and experimental innovation. The effectiveness of the curriculum was evaluated via statistical analysis of questionnaires, interview responses, the increase in student numbers majoring in physics, and performance in a competition. The results provide quantitative support that the curriculum remove huge barriers to programming which occur in text-based environments, helped students gain knowledge of programming and instrumentation, and increased the students’ confidence and motivation to learn physics and computer languages.     

Spatial ability and achievement in introductory physics

This research was undertaken to clarify the nature of the relationship between visual-spatial abilities and achievement in science courses. A related purpose was to determine what influence visual-spatial abilities have on the high attribution rate characteristic of many introductory college-level science courses. Three sections of introductory college level physics (S = 136) and one nonscience liberal arts section (S = 52) received pre- and postmeasures of visual-spatial ability in the areas of perception, orientation, and visualization. Increases in visual-spatial abilities were greatest with an experimental section that received a spatial intervention. These gains were related to test items that utilized graphical form and to laboratory work. Substantial gains in visual-spatial ability were also registered by a placebo and by control sections. These increases suggest that taking introductory physics improves visual-spatial abilities. Although students who withdrew from the course demonstrated mathematics skills comparable to those of students who completed the course, their scores on perception tests were appreciably lower. Visual-spatial scores of the liberal arts group were lower than those of the physics sections, suggesting that visual-spatial ability influences course selection.     

Peer collaboration in solving qualitative physics problems: The role of collaborative talk

This study investigated whether and how peer collaboration facilitated students' problem solving in physics. A qualitative physics test was administered to two Secondary 6 (Year 12) classes, with half of the students in each class randomly assigned to take the test individually and the other half to work in dyads. The abilities of the individuals and dyads were matched such that there was no significant difference between their physics examination grades. The test results show that the dyads performed better than the individuals on each problem and the test as a whole. The rich collaborative talk of the dyads shows that peer collaboration provided students with experiences of co-construction and conflict that were conducive to successful problem solving. However, it was found that co-construction could lead to correct as well as wrong solutions and that conflict and co-construction could occur in the same instance rather than as separate activities. The study also found that students' success in problem solving depended not so much on their ability but on how they interacted and whether and how they invoked the relevant physics principles and strategies.     

关于职业学校物理实验教学的几点思考

物理是一门以实验为基础的自然科学,实验在物理教学中具有不可替代的强大教育功能。生动的物理实验不仅可以有效激发学生学习物理的兴趣和好奇心,提高他们的实践能力、分析能力、科学探究能力,更重要的是可以培养他们严谨、实事求是的科学情感与态度。职业学校强调培养目标要＂以能力为本位、以就业为导向＂,这也要求物理教学要加强实验教学来提高教学效果和开发学生创造能力。笔者从学生动手实验这一课堂教学环节来谈谈自己对职业学校物理实验教学的一些见解。     

Breaking the habit: engineering students’ understanding of mathematical creativity

ABSTRACT

In higher education, engineering students have to be prepared for their future jobs, with knowledge but also with several soft skills, among them creativity. In this paper, we present a study carried on with 128 engineering undergraduate students on their understanding of mathematical creativity. The students were in the first year of different engineering first degrees in a north-eastern Portuguese university and we analysed the content of their texts for the question ‘What do you understand by mathematical creativity?’. Data collection was done in the first semester of the academic years 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 in a Linear Algebra course. The results showed that ‘problem solving’ category had the majority of the references in 2014/2015, but not in the academic year 2016/2017 were ‘involving mathematics’ category had the majority. This exploratory study pointed out for ‘problem solving’ and ‘involving mathematics’ categories and gave us hints for teaching mathematics courses in engineering degrees.     

Parental Involvement,Instructional Expenditures,Family Socioeconomic Attributes,and Student Achievement

Abstract

The influence of parental involvement, socioeconomic status of parents, and instructional supplies expenditures on mathematics achievement scores of Grade 4 students in a low-income county in North Carolina were examined. An educational production function framework was used to analyze the influence of educational resources on mathematics achievement scores. Pearson product-moment correlation and ordinary least squares regression were used to determine the overall strength of each relation and the variables with the greatest impact on mathematics achievement. Results indicated that instructional supplies expenditures per pupil and parental volunteer hours were not statistically significant in explaining mathematics test scores. Furthermore, results showed that the percentage of students in free/reduced-price lunch programs was related negatively to students' academic performance in mathematics. This finding supports the notion that economic circumstances are correlated with academic achievement.