Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2007 APS April Meeting
Volume 52, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2007; Jacksonville, Florida
Session H9: Physics Education Research |
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: Richard Peterson, Bethel College Room: Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront City Terrace 5 |
Sunday, April 15, 2007 8:30AM - 9:06AM |
H9.00001: Improving student learning in physics: The challenge of identifying effective instructional strategies Invited Speaker: It is by now well known that many students leave physics courses expressing essentially the same (incorrect) ideas with which they entered. It is frequently assumed that these prior conceptions can be identified and then addressed through ``interactive engagement'' strategies such as hands-on activities, the use of ``clickers'' in the lecture hall, and small-group collaborative work. But is it that simple? In many cases it is difficult to identify specific tasks that will help students overcome serious and persistent conceptual difficulties. I will illustrate the process of identifying effective instructional strategies with a few examples and argue that topic-specific research on student understanding is crucial for improving instruction. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2007 9:06AM - 9:42AM |
H9.00002: Abstract or Concrete: Which is better for learning and transfer? Invited Speaker: A common educational assumption is that learning is facilitated when knowledge is expressed in a concrete form, such as with rich examples or manipulatives. In addition, many educational curricula use multiple representations, some with varying degrees of concreteness, to aid in learning and transfer. However, there are reasons to call into question the effectiveness of concrete representations. In a series of experiments, we study the effects of concreteness on both learning and transfer. Both undergraduates and sixth graders learned the rules of a simple algebraic group, which has many isomorphic and ``real life'' instantiations. The instantiations learned and tested differed only in the amount and/or kind of concreteness. Results indicate that there are important tradeoffs in both learning and transfer between abstract and concrete representations, and that at least in some cases the learning of multiple representations does not change this conclusion. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2007 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
H9.00003: Investigative Science Learning Environment: Motivation and Outcomes Invited Speaker: The National Science Foundation's ``Shaping the Future 1996'' warns that: ``the national work force is changing dramatically, as high-paying but relatively unskilled factory jobs disappear in the face of foreign competition and technological advances; consequently the educational needs of the prospective work force are now vastly different.'' This report and many others indicate that science education should place much more emphasis on helping students acquire the process abilities used in the practice of science, abilities such as model building, designing experiments, analyzing real world problems, justifying assumptions, evaluating work, and communicating. This presentation will illustrate how Investigative Science Learning Environment used in introductory physics courses helps achieve these goals in large and small college classrooms and describe the results in terms of student learning of these abilities and of physics content. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700