• Open Access

Qualitative investigation of students’ views about experimental physics

Dehui Hu, Benjamin M. Zwickl, Bethany R. Wilcox, and H. J. Lewandowski
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13, 020134 – Published 29 November 2017

Abstract

This study examines students’ reasoning surrounding seemingly contradictory Likert-scale responses within five items in the Colorado Learning Attitudes About Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS). We administered the E-CLASS with embedded open-ended prompts, which asked students to provide explanations after making a Likert-scale selection. The quantitative scores on those items showed that our sample of the 216 students enrolled in first year and beyond first year physics courses demonstrated the same trends as previous national data. A qualitative analysis of students’ open-ended responses was used to examine common reasoning patterns related to particular Likert-scale responses. When explaining responses to items regarding the role of experiments in confirming known results and also contributing to the growth of scientific knowledge, a common reasoning pattern suggested that confirming known results in a classroom experiment can help with understanding concepts. Thus, physics experiments contribute to students’ personal scientific knowledge growth, while also confirming widely known results. Many students agreed that having correct formatting and making well-reasoned conclusions are the main goal for communicating experimental results. Students who focused on sections and formatting emphasized how it enables clear and efficient communication. However, very few students discussed the link between well-reasoned conclusions and effective scientific communication. Lastly, many students argued it was possible to complete experiments without understanding equations and physics concepts. The most common justification was that they could simply follow instructions to finish the lab without understanding. The findings suggest several implications for teaching physics laboratory courses, for example, incorporating some lab activities with outcomes that are unknown to the students might have a significant impact on students’ understanding of experiments as an important approach for developing scientific knowledge.

  • Figure
  • Received 23 August 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.020134

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics Education Research

Authors & Affiliations

Dehui Hu* and Benjamin M. Zwickl

  • School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York 14623, USA

Bethany R. Wilcox

  • Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401 USA

H. J. Lewandowski

  • Department of Physics, University of Colorado, 390 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA and JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

  • *Corresponding author. dxhsps@rit.edu

Article Text

Click to Expand

References

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 13, Iss. 2 — July - December 2017

Reuse & Permissions

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Physics Education Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

×

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×