Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills

In two earlier studies, we developed a new method to measure students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills to new contexts using a sequence of online learning modules, and implemented two interventions in the form of additional learning modules designed to improve transfer ability. Th...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Kyle M. Whitcomb, Matthew W. Guthrie, Chandralekha Singh, Zhongzhou Chen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1d57e679cef1476b80bc61b0c234304b
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:1d57e679cef1476b80bc61b0c234304b
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1d57e679cef1476b80bc61b0c234304b2021-12-02T13:35:16ZImproving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.0101122469-9896https://doaj.org/article/1d57e679cef1476b80bc61b0c234304b2021-03-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010112http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010112https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896In two earlier studies, we developed a new method to measure students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills to new contexts using a sequence of online learning modules, and implemented two interventions in the form of additional learning modules designed to improve transfer ability. The current paper introduces a new data analysis scheme that could improve the accuracy of the measurement by accounting for possible differences in students’ goal orientation and behavior, as well as revealing the possible mechanism by which one of the two interventions improves transfer ability. Based on a 2×2 framework of self-regulated learning, students with a performance-avoidance oriented goal are more likely to guess on some of the assessment attempts in order to save time, resulting in an underestimation of the student populations’ transfer ability. The current analysis shows that about half of the students had frequent brief initial assessment attempts, and significantly lower correct rates on certain modules, which we think is likely to have originated at least in part from students adopting a performance-avoidance strategy. We then divided the remaining population, for which we can be certain that few students adopted a performance-avoidance strategy, based on whether they interacted with one of the intervention modules designed to develop basic problem-solving skills, or passed that module on their first attempt without interacting with the instructional material. By comparing to propensity score matched populations from a previous semester, we found that the improvement in subsequent transfer performance observed in a previous study mainly came from the latter population, suggesting that the intervention served as an effective reminder for students to activate existing skills, but fell short of developing those skills among those who have yet to master it.Kyle M. WhitcombMatthew W. GuthrieChandralekha SinghZhongzhou ChenAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 17, Iss 1, p 010112 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Kyle M. Whitcomb Matthew W. Guthrie Chandralekha Singh Zhongzhou Chen Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills
description	In two earlier studies, we developed a new method to measure students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills to new contexts using a sequence of online learning modules, and implemented two interventions in the form of additional learning modules designed to improve transfer ability. The current paper introduces a new data analysis scheme that could improve the accuracy of the measurement by accounting for possible differences in students’ goal orientation and behavior, as well as revealing the possible mechanism by which one of the two interventions improves transfer ability. Based on a 2×2 framework of self-regulated learning, students with a performance-avoidance oriented goal are more likely to guess on some of the assessment attempts in order to save time, resulting in an underestimation of the student populations’ transfer ability. The current analysis shows that about half of the students had frequent brief initial assessment attempts, and significantly lower correct rates on certain modules, which we think is likely to have originated at least in part from students adopting a performance-avoidance strategy. We then divided the remaining population, for which we can be certain that few students adopted a performance-avoidance strategy, based on whether they interacted with one of the intervention modules designed to develop basic problem-solving skills, or passed that module on their first attempt without interacting with the instructional material. By comparing to propensity score matched populations from a previous semester, we found that the improvement in subsequent transfer performance observed in a previous study mainly came from the latter population, suggesting that the intervention served as an effective reminder for students to activate existing skills, but fell short of developing those skills among those who have yet to master it.
format	article
author	Kyle M. Whitcomb Matthew W. Guthrie Chandralekha Singh Zhongzhou Chen
author_facet	Kyle M. Whitcomb Matthew W. Guthrie Chandralekha Singh Zhongzhou Chen
author_sort	Kyle M. Whitcomb
title	Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills
title_short	Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills
title_full	Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills
title_fullStr	Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills
title_full_unstemmed	Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills
title_sort	improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/1d57e679cef1476b80bc61b0c234304b
work_keys_str_mv	AT kylemwhitcomb improvingaccuracyinmeasuringtheimpactofonlineinstructiononstudentsabilitytotransferphysicsproblemsolvingskills AT matthewwguthrie improvingaccuracyinmeasuringtheimpactofonlineinstructiononstudentsabilitytotransferphysicsproblemsolvingskills AT chandralekhasingh improvingaccuracyinmeasuringtheimpactofonlineinstructiononstudentsabilitytotransferphysicsproblemsolvingskills AT zhongzhouchen improvingaccuracyinmeasuringtheimpactofonlineinstructiononstudentsabilitytotransferphysicsproblemsolvingskills
_version_	1718392660946845696

Improving accuracy in measuring the impact of online instruction on students’ ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills

Ejemplares similares