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2008 National CASTL Institute
Blogging in the Physics ClassroomGintaras K. Duda
& Katherine Garrett
2008 National CASTL Institute
The “Hidden Curriculum”
• We’d like our students to leave “liking” physics.
• But it goes beyond this!
• To use a JITT phrase, we want students to see what physics is “good-for”
2008 National CASTL Institute
What do Students Learn in Introductory Physics?
• What students do well:– Memorize formulae– Learn problem solving techniques which they
regurgitate on exams– Solve simple problems which have limited
applicability in the real world
• What they don’t get: – A richer understanding of physics.
2008 National CASTL Institute
From the MPEX Survey
• MPEX1 survey probes “student attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions about physics”
• ``In all cases, the result of instruction on the overall survey was an increase in unfavorable responses and a decrease in favorable responses ... Thus instruction produced an average deterioration rather than an improvement of student expectations."
1E. Redish, J. Saul, and R. Steinberg, “Student expectations in introductory physics," Am. J. Phys. 66, 212-224 (1998).
2008 National CASTL Institute
Attitude II Survey
• Zeilik et al.: devised an active-learning approach to introductory astronomy at University of New Mexico
• Found “little change over each semester in students’ mildly positive incoming attitudes about astronomy and science.”
2008 National CASTL Institute
The CLASS1 Survey• A relatively new instrument designed to measure
student attitudes in introductory physics courses over a wide range of categories such as personal interest, real world connections and sense making
• They found:“… most teaching practices cause substantialdrops in student scores”
1W. Adams et al., ``New instrument for measuring student beliefs aboutphysics and learning physics: The Colorado Learning Attitudes aboutScience Survey," Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010101 (2006).
2008 National CASTL Institute
Is Physics Unique?
• Other disciplines have begun worrying about student attitudes
• CLASS instrument was modified and used in an intro chemistry course:– ``results indicated that shifts after instruction were similar
to, if not worse than, in physics in moving in the unfavorable direction“
• UNIVERSAL PROBLEM!
2008 National CASTL Institute
The Problem• Students come out of introductory physics courses
less interested in the subject than when they started.• Students see physics as a random assortment of facts
and equations.• Students have only a vague idea how the physics
they learn relates to the world around them.• Students don’t come away understanding how
physics is used in the real world or how it’s practiced as a science.
2008 National CASTL Institute
Why Worry about Attitude?
• Educational research has shown learning is intrinsically linked with student attitude and expectations.
• See for example: – A. Schoenfeld– T. Koballa and F. Crawley
2008 National CASTL Institute
The Solution?• A course blog for introductory physics at
Creighton University.
• The blog would:– Give real world examples of physics– Relate the classroom to the outside world– Show how physics principles relate to other
disciplines– Show what’s interesting about physics
2008 National CASTL Institute
Why a Blog?
• New technology which appeals to students
• Ferdig and Trammel have some good stuff to say
• Using blogs in a different educational setting, Brownstein and Klein report
• Blogs appear to be a powerful tool to help begin addressing the “hidden curriculum”
2008 National CASTL Institute
Our Question
• Can a course blog in a general physics class in which real world examples of physics are provided to students stop or at least ameliorate the deterioration in attitude after instruction as measured by the MPEX, CLASS, and Attitude II instruments?
2008 National CASTL Institute
The Blog: CU General Physics I
2008 National CASTL Institute
Why Blogger? It’s free and easy to use. No campus support issues. www.blogger.com
2008 National CASTL Institute
Posts are compiled and can be edited or deleted as wished.
2008 National CASTL Institute
Student comments
were collected by
using haloscan.
Free and superior to blogger’s
comments.
2008 National CASTL Institute
Blog Posts by Subject Area
2008 National CASTL Institute
Students learn about how friction works in the real-world by reading about how Geckos scale walls.
Microscopic attraction!
A typical Blog Post
2008 National CASTL Institute
Did the Blog Work?• 26 question Likert-scale attitudinal survey
– Modified version of Zeilik’s Attitude II survey – Pre and post testing
• Examines:– Attitude toward physics– Cognitive competence and confidence– Perception of difficulty– Value of physics to students’ lives (referred to as “reality
link” questions)
2008 National CASTL Institute
“Reality Link” questions
• Some examples:– Physics is irrelevant to my life– What I learn in physics this semester will not be useful in my career– Physics is not useful in my everyday life– I will (or do) look at the world differently after
taking this class
2008 National CASTL Institute
Breakdown of SemestersSemester Section Number of Students Participated in Blog StudyFall 2005 A 31 yes
B 27 yes C 32 no (control group)
D 24 no (control group)Spring 2006 A 36 yes
B 35 yes C 33 yes D 25 yes
Fall 2006 A 33 yes B 34 yes C 30 yes D 28 yes
Spring 2007 A 33 yes
2008 National CASTL Institute
Question 4: Physics is Irrelevant to My Life
-1.5
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Pre-Test Response
Post-Test Response
Change from pre-to-post
Fall 2005
2008 National CASTL Institute
40%
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0% 20% 40% 60%
Agree (Unfavorable)
Dis
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Blog non-participants pre
Blog non-participants post
Blog participants pre
Blog participants post
Figure 3: A-D plot for Semester II (spring 2006) for question 7: "I will (or did) find it difficult to understand how physics applies in the real world."
2008 National CASTL Institute
40%
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0% 20% 40% 60%
Agree (Unfavorable)
Dis
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Blog non-participants pre
Blog non-participants post
Blog participants pre
Blog participants post
Figure 4: A-D plot for Semester II (spring 2006) for question 19: "Physics is not useful in my every day life."
2008 National CASTL Institute
40%
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0% 20% 40% 60%
Unfavorable Responses
Fa
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Blog non-participants pre
Blog non-participants post
Blog participants pre
Blog participants post
Figure 5a: A-D plot for Semester II (spring 2006) for an average of the "reality link" questions.
2008 National CASTL Institute
Spring 2006 Results
Results from ``reality-link" questions for the attitudinal survey. Based on a samples-dependent t-test. The difference between the blog and non-blog reading groups was not-statistically significant for the pre-test but statistically significant with p < 0.001 for the post-test.
Scores have been normalized so that 50% represents a neutral response onthe Likert-style attitudinal survey.
2008 National CASTL Institute
40%
60%
80%
100%
0% 20% 40% 60%
% Unfavorable Responses
% F
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sBlog non-participants pre
Blog non-participants post
Blog participants pre
Blog participants post
Experts
OSU pre
OSU post
DC pre
DC post
PLA pre
PLA post
Figure 5b: A-D plot for Semester II (spring 2006) for an average of the "reality link" questions compared to institutions cited in the MPEX study.
2008 National CASTL Institute
40%
60%
80%
100%
0% 20% 40% 60%
% Unfavorable Responses
% F
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Spring 2006 Blog Participants Pre-Test
Spring 2006 Blog Participants Post-Test
Spring 2007 Pre-Test
Spring 2007 Post-Test
Figure 6: A-D plot for Semesters II and IV (springs 2006 and 2007) for an average of the "reality link" questions.
2008 National CASTL Institute
Conclusions• A blog seemed to be a powerful way to reach
students and address the “hidden curriculum”
• Students responded positively– Learned how physics applies in the real-world– For many their favorite component of the course
• Students who read and posted to the blog maintained their initially positive attitudes– Paper to AJP!
2008 National CASTL Institute
What’s Next
• Blogging can affect attitude
• Need to show the effect on student learning
• This is where we need help!
2008 National CASTL Institute
Ideas
• Standard assessment exams are given in general physics– weak correlation with attitude– gain may correlate better
• Link blog to exam questions?• New assessment instrument for “reality link”
concepts?
2008 National CASTL Institute
Slides for Questions
2008 National CASTL Institute
Sample Student Comments
• “I am a very big fan of baseball. So, I went to the website about the physics of baseballs, and the line “why do bats break” caught my attention. I found out that the force that can act on a bat are in the range of 6,000-10,000lbs and happened in the time span of 1/1000 of a second. Because of this great force, lots of vibrations are produced, and some bats break. Also, this is the reason why in a major league baseball game a ball is only used for 4-5 pitches! I knew that they changed balls a lot, but I never knew why. It’s amazing that so many things have to due with physics!”– General Physics Student #1 | 09.20.05 - 8:20 pm
2008 National CASTL Institute
• “With the rise of technological advancements, I guess that I just assumed that functions by a shower head and gas nozzle were simply based in some sort of computerized mechanisms. I never really stopped to actually think about it- I guess I simply took these simple pleasures for granted. Once again, the weekly posted blog has made me examine the functions of everyday life more closely and ask "why?" For me, these blogs have provided concrete examples of the physics that surrounds me...instead of it just being a subject represented by some abstract equations.”– General Physics Student #2 | 11.06.05 - 12:14 am
2008 National CASTL Institute
Data Analysis
• Because of the difficulty in interpreting 5-pt Likert scale data we performed two analyses:
1) group the value or “reality-link” questions and perform a dependent samples t-test (as interval data)
2) use an agree-disagree binomial analysis (treating our data as ordinal data)
2008 National CASTL Institute
Agree-Disagree Plots
• Introduced by Redish et al. in their MPEX paper - called “Redish” plots
Change from pre to post must be > 2σ to be considered significant
(at 5% probability level)