An Empirical Model of Physics Instructors' Beliefs about the Purpose, Actions, and Context of Doing Homework
2018-12
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An Empirical Model of Physics Instructors' Beliefs about the Purpose, Actions, and Context of Doing Homework
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2018-12
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Over the past half century, researchers and curriculum developers studying physics education have created dozens of innovative curricula and educational tools, broadly referred to as research-based instructional strategies (RBIS), to fit almost any classroom situation. However, the rate of adoption of RBIS remains relatively low. A national survey of post-secondary physics instructors in 2012 showed that only half of physics instructors have ever implemented any RBIS in their classrooms, and many of them ceased to do so after implementation difficulties. Why aren’t these effective strategies being implemented at larger rates? Part of removing barriers to RBIS adoption may be understanding what instructors believe about how students learn. In order to answer a small portion of this question, I studied physics instructors’ beliefs about homework. This study is taken up in two parts. First, I analyzed 25 interviews with physics instructors from various types of institutions in Minnesota. The intent of the interviews was to elicit instructors’ beliefs about the role of problem solving in the student learning of introductory physics. I focused on portions of the interviews where instructors spoke about what students should do or learn while they are solving problems independent of instructor assistance (homework). Using analytical methods in line with grounded theory methodology, I performed cycles of vertical and horizontal analyses on these interviews to gain insight into actions, mindsets, contexts, and processes by which students learn physics through doing homework. Six themes regarding homework that emerged from this analysis were: 1) an obligated to do homework, 2) things students should do or not do while they do homework, 3) specific processes students should perform while doing homework, 4) things students should think about or understand while they do homework, 5) mindsets that students should have while doing homework, and 6) working in the context of a group or alone. The second part of the study was to use the themes from the interview analysis to create a survey, which was then sent to physics instructors in the state of Minnesota. I incorporated best practices of survey creation including question ordering, question posing, triangulation, and having both open-ended and fixed-choice responses. I estimate that between 37% and 64% of eligible postsecondary Minnesota physics instructors began the survey, with a completion rate of 88%. Using both the interview analysis and the survey responses, I created an empirical model of physics instructors’ beliefs about homework. There were four main results. First, there is agreement that the goals of doing homework are to learn problem solving and physics principles. Second, homework is seen as necessary for learning physics by a strong majority of instructors, but it is not seen as sufficient for learning. Third, there is a limited number of tasks or actions that instructors believe that students should do while they are solving problems to learn. Fourth, there is evidence that physics instructors fall onto a continuum of beliefs regarding how students should approach solving problems on their homework. On one end of this continuum, instructors believe students should follow an algorithmic process that includes the steps to solving any problem. On the other end of the continuum, instructors believe students should have a more open approach to solving problems where they consider all the tools and principles available to them in order to make decisions about how to solve a problem. These results can inform creators of curriculum and professional development experiences as they try to reach out and connect with instructors and perhaps change their beliefs and practice.
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University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. December 2018. Major: Education, Curriculum and Instruction. Advisor: Leon Hsu. 1 computer file (PDF); xii, 259 pages.
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Straub, Miranda. (2018). An Empirical Model of Physics Instructors' Beliefs about the Purpose, Actions, and Context of Doing Homework. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/202132.
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