Targeted Poster Session: TP-C

Going Up? Learning Transfer among Students in Upper-Level Physics Courses

Organizers:
        Chandralekha Singh (clsingh@pitt.edu), University of Pittsburgh
        Bradley Ambrose (ambroseb@gvsu.edu), Grand Valley State University

Where:  Lobby Suite
When:  8:15 – 9:45 & 1:45 – 3:15, Thursday, August 5

Goal: It is well documented that introductory physics students find it difficult to take a physical concept covered in one context and apply it successfully to a different context. However, we expect that this kind of learning transfer would improve as one gains experience in physics. Thus a central research question we will explore and the complexity of which we hope the participants will appreciate is this: To what extent do students in upper-level physics courses demonstrate learning transfer? The presenters will discuss specific examples from their own research.

Theme: The theme of this targeted poster session is transfer of learning among students in upper-level physics courses. The theme is tied to the general theme of the conference. In this poster session the presenters define transfer of learning as the ability to apply a physical concept successfully to a situation different from that in which the concept was introduced [1]. For students in first-year physics courses, previous research has shown that learning transfer is usually very difficult. For students in a particular upper-level course, the question of learning transfer becomes more complex in that the requisite concepts may have been covered at the introductory level (e.g., Newton's laws, energy conservation) or at an earlier stage in that same upper-level course. The presenters will use examples from their own research, conducted in a variety of upper division courses (e.g., modern physics, intermediate mechanics and thermal physics), to discuss the extent to which the students in those courses demonstrate transfer of learning. Some presenters will also discuss preliminary work in developing instructional strategies designed to improve transfer of learning, by combining qualitative (conceptual) and quantitative problem solving or by giving students explicit guidance in applying a particular concept in different contexts.

1. Transfer of learning: Contemporary research and applications. S. M. Cormier and J. D. Hagman (eds.), New York: Academic Press, 1987.

Individual Poster Abstracts

TP-C1
Transfer of learning in quantum mechanics
Chandralekha Singh (clsingh@pitt.edu), University of Pittsburgh
Abstract: Although learning is highly context-dependent, the ability to transfer knowledge improves as one develops expertise in a particular domain [1]. Our preliminary studies show that transfer of learning is challenging even for advanced undergraduate students. In quantum mechanics, we want students to be able to transfer their learning related to wave phenomena, probability theory, and linear algebra from their previous courses. We also expect students to be able to apply the ideas learned in the same course in one context to a somewhat different context. We will discuss the extent to which transfer actually occurs in appropriate cases and explore cases where transferrance of classical or semi-classical ideas makes learning quantum physics even more challenging.

1. M. L. Gick and K. J. Holyoak, The cognitive basis of knowledge transfer.  In Cornier & Hagman (Eds.), Transfer of learning: Contemporary research and applications. New York, Academic Press, 1987.

TP-C2
A repeat performance? Challenges in developing robust conceptual understanding among advanced students: Examples from intermediate mechanics and modern physics
Bradley Ambrose, (ambroseb@gvsu.edu), Grand Valley State University
Abstract: Ongoing research at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) is being used to develop and test instructional materials, modeled after Tutorials in Introductory Physics, [1] for use in teaching intermediate mechanics [2] and modern physics. An important question that has arisen from this work, and on which this poster will focus, is: To what extent should we expect upper-level physics students to be able to apply concepts previously covered in class even those addressed through PER-based instruction at the advanced level to different situations? Extensive research already conducted at the introductory level has revealed that such transfer is extremely difficult for beginning students to do on their own. Preliminary results from the present investigation indicate that such transfer can be just as difficult in upper division courses. These results suggest that, in order for modifications in such courses to yield robust student understanding, specific conceptual and reasoning difficulties must be addressed explicitly and at multiple instances during instruction.

1. L.C. McDermott, P.S. Shaffer, and the Physics Education Group at the Univ. of Washington (Prentice Hall, 2002).

2. B.S. Ambrose, Investigating student understanding in intermediate mechanics: Identifying the need for a tutorial approach to instruction, Am. J. Phys. 72 (4), 453 459 (2004).

TP-C3
Student Learning in Upper-Level Thermal Physics: Comparisons and Contrasts with Students in Introductory Courses
David Meltzer (dem@iastate.edu) , Iowa State University
Abstract: We found that students in an upper-level thermal physics course were in general quicker than introductory students at grasping and applying fundamental concepts. However, even quite capable upper-level students would falter unexpectedly and unpredictably on various conceptual difficulties that are common among introductory students. The unpredictable and inconsistent nature of this effect demonstrated that instructors must always be prepared to detect and address such difficulties in upper-level courses. Upper-level students seemed, in general, more receptive to employing qualitative reasoning using multiple representations, and capable of using it more effectively than introductory students. In addition, upper-level students were better able to utilize guided-inquiry curricular materials in the sense of reasoning with greater depth and grasping more subtle issues. However, although the overall level of preparation and ability was higher in the upper-level course, the broad range of preparation represented among the students presented various practical challenges to implementing active-learning instructional strategies.

TP-C4
Tracing difficulties with relativistically invariant mass to difficulties with vector addition of momentum in Newtonian contexts
Andrew Boudreaux (boudrea@physics.wwu.edu), Western Washington University
Abstract: For effective transfer of knowledge, it is necessary to break the transfer of conceptual difficulties. In physics courses that include special relativity, students are expected to relate the invariant mass of a system to the energy and momentum of the individual particles that make it up. Many have difficulty doing so. Necessary ideas are that the energy and momentum of each particle form components of a four-vector, and that the four-vector of the system is the sum of the individual four-vectors. Results from written questions show that some students’ difficulties stem from a failure to treat energy-momentum as a vector. Introductory students experience related difficulties in a purely non-relativistic context: many fail to take the vector nature of three-momentum into account when relating the momentum of a system to the momenta of its constituents. Results suggest that this difficulty is widespread and persistent, and is not necessarily resolved through the study of advanced topics.