Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course

The cyclic format of the undergraduate physics curriculum depends on students’ ability to recall and utilize material covered in prior courses in order to reliably build on that knowledge in later courses. However, there is evidence to suggest that people often do not retain all, or even most, of wh...

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Autores principales:	Bethany R. Wilcox, Steven J. Pollock, Daniel R. Bolton
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2020
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b4b94facd44042cf8a16afd746d5ba36
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b4b94facd44042cf8a16afd746d5ba362021-12-02T11:46:23ZRetention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.0101402469-9896https://doaj.org/article/b4b94facd44042cf8a16afd746d5ba362020-06-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010140http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010140https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896The cyclic format of the undergraduate physics curriculum depends on students’ ability to recall and utilize material covered in prior courses in order to reliably build on that knowledge in later courses. However, there is evidence to suggest that people often do not retain all, or even most, of what they learned previously. How much information is retained appears to be dependent on the individuals’ approach to learning as well as the style of instruction. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that active engagement techniques in the classroom can improve students’ retention of the material over time. Here, we report the findings of a longitudinal investigation of students’ retention of conceptual understanding as measured by the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) following a first-semester, calculus-based introductory physics course, which features significant active engagement in both lecture and recitation. By administering the FMCE at the end of a first-semester physics course and again at the beginning of the subsequent second-semester physics course, we examine students’ knowledge retention over time periods ranging from 1 to 15 months. We find that the shift in students’ FMCE scores between these two courses is positive but corresponds to a small effect size, indicating that students retained effectively all of their conceptual learning (as measured by the FMCE). This finding largely persists even as the length of the gap between the two courses increases. We also find that, when breaking out students’ performance on individual questions, the majority of students maintain their score on individual questions. Averaged over all questions, roughly a fifth of the students switched their answers from right to wrong or wrong to right on any given item.Bethany R. WilcoxSteven J. PollockDaniel R. BoltonAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 16, Iss 1, p 010140 (2020)
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 Bethany R. Wilcox Steven J. Pollock Daniel R. Bolton Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course
description	The cyclic format of the undergraduate physics curriculum depends on students’ ability to recall and utilize material covered in prior courses in order to reliably build on that knowledge in later courses. However, there is evidence to suggest that people often do not retain all, or even most, of what they learned previously. How much information is retained appears to be dependent on the individuals’ approach to learning as well as the style of instruction. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that active engagement techniques in the classroom can improve students’ retention of the material over time. Here, we report the findings of a longitudinal investigation of students’ retention of conceptual understanding as measured by the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) following a first-semester, calculus-based introductory physics course, which features significant active engagement in both lecture and recitation. By administering the FMCE at the end of a first-semester physics course and again at the beginning of the subsequent second-semester physics course, we examine students’ knowledge retention over time periods ranging from 1 to 15 months. We find that the shift in students’ FMCE scores between these two courses is positive but corresponds to a small effect size, indicating that students retained effectively all of their conceptual learning (as measured by the FMCE). This finding largely persists even as the length of the gap between the two courses increases. We also find that, when breaking out students’ performance on individual questions, the majority of students maintain their score on individual questions. Averaged over all questions, roughly a fifth of the students switched their answers from right to wrong or wrong to right on any given item.
format	article
author	Bethany R. Wilcox Steven J. Pollock Daniel R. Bolton
author_facet	Bethany R. Wilcox Steven J. Pollock Daniel R. Bolton
author_sort	Bethany R. Wilcox
title	Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course
title_short	Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course
title_full	Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course
title_fullStr	Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course
title_full_unstemmed	Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course
title_sort	retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/b4b94facd44042cf8a16afd746d5ba36
work_keys_str_mv	AT bethanyrwilcox retentionofconceptuallearningafteraninteractiveintroductorymechanicscourse AT stevenjpollock retentionofconceptuallearningafteraninteractiveintroductorymechanicscourse AT danielrbolton retentionofconceptuallearningafteraninteractiveintroductorymechanicscourse
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Retention of conceptual learning after an interactive introductory mechanics course

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