1In Collaboration with Katherine Garrett To be published as AJP 76 (10) 2008.

Blogging in the Physics Classroom1

Gintaras K. Duda K-State PER Seminar September 23, 2008

Gintaras K. Duda

The “Hidden Curriculum”   We’d like our students to leave “liking” physics.

  But it goes beyond this:  an appreciation of how physicists think and operate   to see how physics applies to other fields such as

engineering or medicine  see how physics applies to everyday life

  To use a JITT phrase, we want students to see what physics is “good-for”

Gintaras K. Duda

What do Students Learn in Introductory Physics?

 What students do well:  Memorize formulae  Learn problem solving techniques which they

regurgitate on exams  Solve simple problems which have limited

applicability in the real world

 What they don’t get:   A richer understanding of physics.

Gintaras K. Duda

From the MPEX Survey  MPEX2 survey probes “student attitudes,

beliefs, and assumptions about physics”

  ``In all cases, the result of instruction on the overall survey was an increase in unfavorable responses and a decrease in favorable responses ... Thus instruction produced an average deterioration rather than an improvement of student expectations."

2E. Redish, J. Saul, and R. Steinberg, “Student expectations in introductory physics," Am. J. Phys. 66, 212-224 (1998).

Gintaras K. Duda

Zeilik3 in Intro Astronomy   Devised a active-learning approach to

introductory astronomy at UNM   Data from 400+ students   They found:

“little change over each semester in students‘ mildly positive incoming attitudes about astronomy and science.“

3M. Zeilik, C. Schau, and N. Mattern, ``Conceptual Astronomy. II. Replicating conceptual gains, probing attitude changes across three semesters," Am. J. Phys. 67, 923-927 (1999).

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The CLASS4 Survey   A relatively new instrument designed to measure

student attitudes in introductory physics courses over a wide range of categories such as personal interest, real world connections and sense making

  They found: “… most teaching practices cause substantial drops in student scores”

4W. Adams et al., ``New instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics: The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey," Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010101 (2006).

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Is Physics Unique?   Other disciplines have begun worrying about

student attitude   The CLASS instrument was modified and used

in an intro chemistry course:   ``results indicated that shifts after instruction were

similar to, if not worse than, in physics in moving in the unfavorable direction“

  UNIVERSAL PROBLEM!

Gintaras K. Duda

The Problem   Students come out of introductory physics

courses less interested in the subject than when they started.

  Students see physics as a random assortment of facts and equations.

  Students have only a vague idea how the physics they learn relates to the world around them.

  Students don’t come away understanding how physics is used in the real world or how it’s practiced as a science.

Gintaras K. Duda

Why Worry about Attitude?  Educational research has shown learning

is intrinsically linked with student attitude and expectations.

 See for example:  A. Schoenfeld  T. Koballa and F. Crawley5

5T. Koballa and F. Crawley, “Attitude Research in Science Education: Contemporary Models and Methods”, Science Education 78, 35-55 (1994).

Gintaras K. Duda

A Solution?  A course blog for introductory physics at

Creighton University.

 The blog would:  Give real world examples of physics  Relate the classroom to the outside world  Show how physics principles relate to other

disciplines  Show what’s interesting about physics  Be used as a tool to probe student attitude

Gintaras K. Duda

Why a Blog?   New technology which appeals to students

  From Ferdig and Trammel6:  writing posts and comments exposes students to a

wide range of new materials   tends to increase student excitement and sense of

ownership  opens discussions to all students  moves discussions outside the classroom  Provides a way for students and instructors to interact

outside of class 6R. Ferdig and K. Trammell, “Content Delivery in the Blogosphere”, T.H.E.

Journal (www.thejournal.com/articles/16626).

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  Using blogs in a different educational setting, Brownstein and Klein7 report:   their student focus moved from “‘what’ to `why’”   their students began to “see knowledge as

interconnected as opposed to a set of discrete facts"

  Blogs appear to be a powerful tool to help begin addressing the “hidden curriculum”

7E. Brownstein and R. Klein, “Blogs: Applications in Science Education”, J. Col. Sci. Teach. 35 (6), 18-22 (2006).

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The blog was implemented in 1st

and 2nd semester intro physics courses over two years.

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The Blog: CU General Physics I

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Why Blogger? It’s free and easy to use. No campus support issues. www.blogger.com

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Posts are compiled and can be edited or deleted as wished.

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Student comments

were collected by

using haloscan.

Free and superior to blogger’s

comments.

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Blog Posts by Subject Area

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Students learn about how friction works in the real-world by reading about how Geckos scale walls.

Microscopic attraction!

A typical Blog Post

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Sample Student Comments   “I am a very big fan of baseball. So, I went to the website

about the physics of baseballs, and the line “why do bats break” caught my attention. I found out that the force that can act on a bat are in the range of 6,000-10,000lbs and happened in the time span of 1/1000 of a second. Because of this great force, lots of vibrations are produced, and some bats break. Also, this is the reason why in a major league baseball game a ball is only used for 4-5 pitches! I knew that they changed balls a lot, but I never knew why. It’s amazing that so many things have to due with physics!”   General Physics Student #1 | 09.20.05 - 8:20 pm

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  “With the rise of technological advancements, I guess that I just assumed that functions by a shower head and gas nozzle were simply based in some sort of computerized mechanisms. I never really stopped to actually think about it- I guess I simply took these simple pleasures for granted. Once again, the weekly posted blog has made me examine the functions of everyday life more closely and ask "why?" For me, these blogs have provided concrete examples of the physics that surrounds me...instead of it just being a subject represented by some abstract equations.”   General Physics Student #2 | 11.06.05 - 12:14 am

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Our Research Question  Can students’ initially positive attitudes

towards physics as measured by the MPEX, CLASS, and Attitude II surveys be maintained by using a course blog which highlights real-life examples and applications of physics?  Our study is restricted to the “reality-link” sub-

section of the attitudinal surveys

Gintaras K. Duda

The Measure: Did we Succeed?  An attitudinal survey was administered at

the beginning of the semester to all sections of general physics.

 The same survey + additional year-end questions was administered at the end of the semester

  5 point Likert scale scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree

Gintaras K. Duda

Sample Attitudinal Questions   Pre-Test Questions

 Physics is irrelevant to my life

  I will like physics  What I learn in physics

will be useful in my career

  I can learn physics

  Post-Test Questions  Physics is irrelevant to

my life   I liked physics  What I learned in

physics is useful in my career

  I learned physics

Modified version of Mike Zeilik’s (UNM) Surveys of Attitudes towards Astronomy. Tests 4 areas.

Gintaras K. Duda

The Attitude II Survey Began our study before the CLASS was available.

Modified Attitude II Survey has its roots in a survey for statistics8

8C. Schau et al., Educ. Pysch. Meas. 55, 868-875 (1995).

Gintaras K. Duda

Comparison with CLASS  Since we used a non-standard instrument

we worried about reliability and validity

We calculated Cronbach alpha values for the reality-link questions on our Attitude II survey for three semesters.

Good reliability for Attitude II survey.

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 We gave a sub-section of students both the Attitude II and the CLASS

Correlation between CLASS and Attitude II was quite robust for reality-link type questions.

Confident Attitude II and CLASS are measuring the same thing.

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Data Analysis   Because of the difficulty in interpreting 5-pt Likert

scale data we performed two analyses:

1) group the value or “reality-link” questions and perform an independent t-test (as interval data)

2) use an agree-disagree binomial analysis (treating our data as ordinal data)

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Agree-Disagree Plots   Introduced by Redish et al. in their MPEX paper

- called “Redish” plots

Change from pre to post must be > 2σ to be considered significant

(at 5% probability level)

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Fall 2005 + Fall 2006   In Fall 2005 two sections participated in the blog

study while two did not.   In Fall 2006 all four sections participated in the

blog study.  G.D. was not an instructor in fall 2006

  Results: Students who participated in the blog study maintained their initially positive attitudes.

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Spring 2006 + Spring 2007   Much tighter controls:

  Individual student responses collected   Grade, blog reading, attitudinal shifts could all be

analyzed on a per student basis

  Results: 1)  Students who read the course blog maintained their

initially positive attitudes 2)  Statistically significant deterioration in attitude for

students who did not read the blog

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It’s not just the best students reading the blog!

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Spring 2006 Results

Results from ``reality-link" questions for the attitudinal survey. Based on an independent t-test. The difference between the blog and non-blog reading groups was not-statistically significant for the pre-test but statistically significant with p < 0.01 for the post-test with an effect size of 1.51.

Gintaras K. Duda

What are the students doing?9

 Student comments to the blog are a treasure-trove of qualitative data

 Did students do what they were supposed to?  Did they interact with each other?  Did they discuss physics outside of class?  Do discussion behaviors correlate with

learning? 9G.D. and Katherine Garrett in PERC 2008 Proceedings

Gintaras K. Duda

Number of Student Comments Semester Students Comments Fall 2005 Males 9 86 Females 34 349 Fall 2006 Males 22 217 Females 35 348 Fall 2007 Males 19 194 Females 27 254 Total 146 1448

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Coding the Data  We used emergent coding to draw out

interesting commonalities  Five dimensions:

 Student interaction  Introduction of new knowledge  Application of new knowledge  Self-disclosure of knowledge  Expressed fascination or interest

Gintaras K. Duda

Sample Student Comment   Fall 2007: RL+ example: When I was training for

Rescue SCUBA diving certification and my master certification I remember we used vectors a lot. After a class lecture on vectors, we went out and practiced them on land. Pretty much the instructors took us out to a desert patch on Catalina Island, California ( an island that is pretty much pure desert), gave us a list of vectors, with degree bearings, put towels over our heads and told us to go find the “missing diver”. I must say it was not only fun but shows a very crucial real world application of physics. To put it into a different light, how else are you going to navigate 60ft underwater where everything looks the same?

Gintaras K. Duda

Categorizing Student Posts Theme Number of Posts % of Total Posts Student Interaction

385 27%

Introduction of new knowledge

424 29%

Application of new knowledge

217 15%

Self-Disclosure 354 24% Interest/fascination

629 43%

Students did in fact interact outside of class and tie and integrate new knowledge

Gintaras K. Duda

Correlation with Learning Gains  We examined correlation of blog

commenting behavior with gains on the FMCE

 Weak to non-existent correlation  Guide for future work on the blog

Type of Comment

Correlation Coefficient R

95% C.L. Interval

New Knowledge 0.16 0.0 to 0.3 Application 0.18 0.02 to 0.33

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Gender Differences

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The “Gender Gap” Students Normalized Gain P-value Non-Blogging Males (n=82) 0.67 < 0.05 Females (n=63) 0.50 (significant) Blogging Males (n=50) 0.63 0.165 Females (n=96) 0.56 (not significant)

No gender gap seen in the blogging population of male and female students

Selection effects?

Gintaras K. Duda

Student Reactions  They appreciated the extra credit.   It made physics more interesting and more

applicable to their major.  Helped them to understand how the world

worked.  Made physics more practical or “real”.   Led to positive interaction with their

classmates.

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 Understood physics was more than just a bunch of equations.

 Understood how different branches of science are connected.

 Helped them understand the relevance of what they learned in class.

 Made them more interested in physics.  Made them want to go into physics

because of all the interesting things to do with physics.

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Additional Survey Items for Spring 2006 + 2007

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Conclusions   A blog seemed to be a powerful way to reach

students and address the “hidden curriculum”  Students reading the blog maintained their initial

positive attitudes about physics   Increased student interactivity  Forced students to seek out and connect new

knowledge

  Students responded positively  Learned how physics applies in the real-world  For many their favorite component of the course