Gender Differences in Learning Constructs,Shifts in Learning Constructs,and Their Relationship to Course Achievement in a Structured Inquiry,Yearlong College Physics Course for Life Science Majors

This study investigated differences and shifts in learning and motivation constructs among male and female students in a nonmajors, yearlong structured inquiry college physics course and examined how these variables were related to physics understanding and course achievement. Tests and questionnaires measured students' learning approaches, motivational goals, self‐efficacy, epistemological beliefs, scientific reasoning abilities, and understanding of central physics concepts at the beginning and end of the course. Course achievement scores were also obtained. The findings showed that male students had significantly higher self‐efficacy, performance goals, and physics understanding compared to females, which persisted throughout the course. Differential shifts were found in students' meaningful learning approaches, with females tending to use less meaningful learning from beginning to end of the course; and males using more meaningful learning over this time period. For both males and females, self‐efficacy significantly predicted physics understanding and course achievement. For females, higher reasoning ability was also a significant predictor of understanding and achievement; whereas for males, learning goals and rote learning were significant predictors, but in a negative direction. The findings reveal that different variables of learning and motivation may be important for females' success in inquiry physics compared to males. Instructors should be cognizant of those needs in order to best help all students learn and achieve in college physics.     

Calculus demonstrations using MATLAB

The note discusses ways in which technology can be used in the calculus learning process. In particular, five MATLAB programs are detailed for use by instructors or students that demonstrate important concepts in introductory calculus: Newton's method, differentiation and integration. Two of the programs are animated. The programs and the graphical user interface have been specifically designed to help the student understand the processes behind these important introductory concepts. Each program has a series of demonstrations that show unusual, difficult or important cases.     

Metaphor Clusters: Characterizing Instructor Metaphorical Reasoning on Limit Concepts in College Calculus

Novice students have difficulty with the topic of limits in calculus. We believe this is in part because of the multiple perspectives and shifting metaphors available to solve items correctly. We investigated college calculus instructors' personal concepts of limits. Based upon previous research investigating introductory calculus student metaphorical reasoning, we examined 11 college instructors' metaphorical reasoning on limit concepts. This paper focused on previous research of metaphor clusters observed among students to answer the following: (a) Do college instructors use metaphorical reasoning to conceptualize the meaning of a limit? (b) Can we characterize instructor metaphorical reasoning similar to those observed among students? (c) Will an instructor's self‐identification of metaphor clusters be consistent with our metaphor coding? We found that college instructors' perspectives vary, either graphical or algebraic, in their explanations of limit items. All the instructors used metaphors, and instructor metaphorical reasoning aligned with student metaphor clusters. Instructors tended to change their metaphors with respect to the limit item. Instructors were not aware of their use of metaphors, nor were they aware of their inconsistency in their choice of metaphor. We believe that instructor awareness of their own distinct perspectives and metaphors would assist students' understanding of limit concepts.     

How Students Use Physics to Reason About Calculus Tasks

The present research study investigates how undergraduate students in an integrated calculus and physics class use physics to help them solve calculus problems. Using Zandieh's (2000) framework for analyzing student understanding of derivative as a starting point, this study adds detail to her “paradigmatic physical” context and begins to address the need for a theoretical basis for investigating learning and teaching in integrated mathematics and science classrooms. A case study design was used to investigate the different ways students use physics ideas as they worked through calculus tasks. Data were gathered through four individual interviews with each of 8 ICP students, classroom participant‐observation, and triangulation of the data through student homework and exams. The main result of this study is the Physics Use Classification Scheme, a tool consisting of four categories used to characterize students' uses of physics on tasks involving average rate of change, derivative, and integral concepts. Two of the categories from the Physics Use Classification Scheme are elucidated with contrasting student cases in this paper.     

Creating discussions with classroom voting in linear algebra

We present a study of classroom voting in linear algebra, in which the instructors posed multiple-choice questions to the class and then allowed a few minutes for consideration and small-group discussion. After each student in the class voted on the correct answer using a classroom response system, a set of clickers, the instructor then guided a class-wide discussion of the results. We recorded the percentage of students voting for each option on each question used in 18 sections of linear algebra, taught by 10 instructors, at 8 institutions, over the course of 5 years, together recording the results of 781 votes on a collection of 311 questions. To find the questions most likely to provoke significant discussions, we identify the six questions for which votes were most broadly distributed. Here we present these questions, we discuss how we used them to advance student learning, and we discuss the common features of these questions, to identify why they were so good at stimulating discussions.     

Putting Physics First: Three Case Studies of High School Science Department and Course Sequence Reorganization

This article examines the process of shifting to a “Physics First” sequence in science course offerings in three school districts in the United States. This curricular sequence reverses the more common U.S. high school sequence of biology/chemistry/physics, and has gained substantial support in the physics education community over the past few decades. Using qualitative case study methodology, the present study focuses on the lessons learned in three school districts that successfully rearranged their course offerings and made physics a ninth‐grade subject for all of its students. Findings show that in all districts, the shift was undertaken to support student learning in mathematics and in future science learning. In every case, the coordination between ninth grade physics and ninth‐grade algebra was much more difficult than expected. Also, during most transitions, the number of students taking biology dropped precipitously for a period of 1–2 years. Though there is shared agreement about Physics First as the realignment of the high school curricular sequence, there is less consensus about how such programs ought to be aligned with mathematics curricula. The article concludes with suggestions for sources of evidence in conducting effectiveness studies on the Physics First approach.     

Developing Student Understanding: Contextualizing Calculus Concepts

This study looked at the practice of one high school teacher who provided students with concrete examples from their physics class to give them a contextually rich environment in which to explore the abstractions of calculus. Students discovered connections between the physics concepts of position, velocity, and acceleration and the calculus concepts of function, derivative, and antiderivative. The qualitative study sought to describe several critical aspects of understanding: students' ability to explain concepts and procedures, to apply concepts in a physics context, and to explore their own learning. It included 32 seniors at a large, urban, comprehensive, religious school in a midwestern stale. Samples of student work and reflections were collected by the teacher, as well as by students in individual portfolios. The teacher kept a reflective journal. This study suggests that making connections between calculus and physics can yield deep understandings of semantic as well as procedural knowledge.     

The impact of instructor pedagogy on college calculus students’ attitude toward mathematics

College calculus teaches students important mathematical concepts and skills. The course also has a substantial impact on students’ attitude toward mathematics, affecting their career aspirations and desires to take more mathematics. This national US study of 3103 students at 123 colleges and universities tracks changes in students’ attitudes toward mathematics during a ‘mainstream’ calculus course while controlling for student backgrounds. The attitude measure combines students’ self-ratings of their mathematics confidence, interest in, and enjoyment of mathematics. Three major kinds of instructor pedagogy, identified through the factor analysis of 61 student-reported variables, are investigated for impact on student attitude as follows: (1) instructors who employ generally accepted ‘good teaching’ practices (e.g. clarity in presentation and answering questions, useful homework, fair exams, help outside of class) are found to have the most positive impact, particularly with students who began with a weaker initial attitude. (2) Use of educational ‘technology’ (e.g. graphing calculators, for demonstrations, in homework), on average, is found to have no impact on attitudes, except when used by graduate student instructors, which negatively affects students’ attitudes towards mathematics. (3) ‘Ambitious teaching’ (e.g. group work, word problems, ‘flipped’ reading, student explanations of thinking) has a small negative impact on student attitudes, while being a relatively more constructive influence only on students who already enjoyed a positive attitude toward mathematics and in classrooms with a large number of students. This study provides support for efforts to improve calculus teaching through the training of faculty and graduate students to use traditional ‘good teaching’ practices through professional development workshops and courses. As currently implemented, technology and ambitious pedagogical practices, while no doubt effective in certain classrooms, do not appear to have a reliable, positive impact on student attitudes toward mathematics.     

Mathematica™ in context

Aspects of the problem of teaching introductory undergraduate mathematics are considered in the context of both an increased participation rate in higher education as well as increasingly sophisticated computational technology. In particular, some of the changes in student and governmental expectations of course outcomes are canvassed, and an ongoing project initiated as a response both to these changes and to the availability of modern computational algebra systems that have sophisticated user interfaces is described. The project's aim is to develop students' mathematical understanding by undertaking practical laboratory work focused on applications that are perceived by students to be relevant to their social context and employment aspirations.     

The incoming statistical knowledge of undergraduate majors in a department of mathematics and statistics

Studies have shown that at the end of an introductory statistics course, students struggle with building block concepts, such as mean and standard deviation, and rely on procedural understandings of the concepts. This study aims to investigate the understandings entering freshman of a department of mathematics and statistics (including mathematics education), students who are presumably better prepared in terms of mathematics and statistics than the average university student, have of introductory statistics. This case study found that these students enter college with common statistical misunderstandings, lack of knowledge, and idiosyncratic collections of correct statistical knowledge. Moreover, they also have a wide range of beliefs about their knowledge with some of the students who believe that they have the strongest knowledge also having significant misconceptions. More attention to these statistical building blocks may be required in a university introduction statistics course.     

Outcomes of a service teaching module on ODEs for physics students

This paper reports on the first part of a multiphase research project that seeks to identify and address the difficulties encountered by physics students when studying differential equations. Differential equations are used extensively by undergraduate physics students, particularly in the advanced modules of their degree. It is, therefore, necessary that students develop conceptual understanding of differential equations in addition to procedural skills. We have investigated the difficulties encountered by third-year students at Dublin City University in an introductory differential equations module. We developed a survey to identify these difficulties and administered it to students who had recently completed the module. We found that students’ mathematical ability in relation to procedural competence is an issue in their study of differential equations, but not as severe an issue as their conceptual understanding. Mathematical competence alone is insufficient if we expect our students to be able to recognize the need for differential equations in a physical context and to be able to set up, solve and interpret the solutions of such equations. We discuss the implications of these results for the next stages of the research project.     

Definitions and examples in elementary calculus: the case of monotonicity of functions

This paper is devoted to the investigation of students’ understanding and handling of examples in the framework of an example-based introductory mathematics undergraduate course. The plan of the course included a wide use of graphs in standard lectures, tutoring sessions as well as in examinations. This study deals with the notion of increasing function, which has been introduced by means of both the standard definition and a range of examples and non-examples, most often conveyed through graphs. We have analysed students’ interpretations of the notion of increasing function as they applied them in a set of written examination tests. The data gathered have been completed by a number of interviews of students whose answers were difficult to interpret. The outcomes underline the importance of linguistic and semiotic competence and suggest that the design of innovative teaching paths should take care of the linguistic and semiotic skills needed to handle the representations involved.     

Attitudes and perceived usefulness of statistics among health sciences students

A questionnaire was completed at the cessation of semester 2 in November 1989 by 102 postgraduate and 58 undergraduate health sciences students studying introductory statistics units. The questionnaire measured; (i) the student's attitude towards statistics, (ii) the way in which they learned statistics, (iii) the student's intention to pursue further statistics training, and (iv) the perceived usefulness of statistics in their professions. It was found that the learning of statistics would be enhanced by smaller tutorial groups, and more exposure to computer printouts to assist in interpretation of results. An emphasis on the understanding of statistics presented in journal articles should be a priority. It was also apparent that the more computer and research experience the student had prior to commencing the course, the greater the likelihood of a positive attitude towards statistics. However, both undergraduate and postgraduate students indicated that they would not enrol in an advanced biostatistics course, but would rather consult a statistician when necessary. Suggestions for more effective statistical teaching for health sciences students are also discussed.     

Identification and definition of lexically ambiguous words in statistics by tutors and students

Lexical ambiguity arises when a word from everyday English is used differently in a particular discipline, such as statistics. This paper reports on a project that begins by identifying tutors’ perceptions of words that are potentially lexically ambiguous to students, in two different ways. Students’ definitions of nine lexically ambiguous words are also collected at the beginning and end of a semester of introductory statistics study, in a complex design taking account of multiple tutors and multiple words in multiple contexts. Tutor perceptions and actual student difficulties at the beginning of a semester are compared. The lexical ambiguity associated with the word ‘significance’ is shown to be evident in students even after completing an introductory statistics course.     

《数学物理方法》课程教改的探索与实践

随着我国科学技术的快速发展,对于理工科学生在数学基础和数学素养方面的要求越来越高.数学物理方法课程综合应用了各个数学分支的内容,是提升理工科本科学生应用数学能力的重要基础课程.本文以课程作用、课程安排以及教学内容的梳理改进为主线,介绍数学物理方法课程教改的思考与实践.     

A Case Study of the Effectiveness of Teacher Experience in the Use of Explanation‐Based Assessment in High School Physics

This article reports on the results of a study involving an innovative assessment program initiated to investigate student predictions and revised explanations regarding a variety of optical phenomena. The assessments were administered via videotape to two classes of high school physics students from different high schools. Two high school teachers with similar educational and teaching backgrounds administered the tapes to the two groups of students. The school environments and the ability levels of the two student groups were similar. The students of the teacher with greater experience with this new form of assessment provided considerably more substantive explanations to the phenomena presented on the videos. The results of the case study suggest that the introduction of new forms of assessment in science education, although desirable, will require significant reordering of the goals and strategies of science teaching.     

大学二级学院高等数学教学的改革与实践

本文结合我校城南学院的教学实践,从学生的学习、老师的教学以及学校的教学环境三个方面分析大学二级学院高等数学教学过程中存在的一些问题,并提出相应的改进对策,以提高教学效果和实现培养学生良好数学素养的目的．     

Problems and Possibilities with Teaching Introductory Statistics to Social Scientists

As undergraduates, many social scientists take only one introductory course in statistics, and this paper concentrates mainly on the various issues involved in teaching such a course. Among the topics discussed are: the aims of the course; the problem of students’ varying mathematical backgrounds and abilities, and in particular the very low level of mathematics of a significant number of them; the question of a common course for all social sciences, and the differing needs of the various subjects; who should teach introductory statistics; the problem of developing students’ motivation to study statistics; the use of practical work; the possibilities of the computer; the utility of programmed texts and teaching machines. The intention of the paper is to provide a framework for the seminar by a broad review of the topics, a number of which are discussed in detail in subsequent sessions.