Targeted Poster Sessions

Various Times & Rooms Listed Below
Targeted Poster Presenters:  Please follow the instructions provided here.

Targeted Poster Session: TP-A

Challenges for the PER Community:  An Exploration of Common Assumptions, Open Questions, and Current Controversies

Organizer:  Paula Heron (pheron@dirac.phys.washington.edu), Univ. of Washington
Where:  Summit Room
When:  8:15 – 9:45 & 3:45 – 5:15, Thursday, August 5

Goal: In this Targeted Poster Session, we will each identify specific common assumptions, open questions, or current controversies and argue the need for their illumination through research.  We will challenge the community to tackle these issues and propose some initial steps.  Participants in the session will be invited to refine and/or redirect these challenges, and pose additional ones of their own.  The goal will be to stimulate research on some issues of importance for the field.

Targeted Poster Session: TP-B

Beyond Student Transfer: Graduate, Postdoc, and Faculty Development and the Road to Sustainable and Scalable Inclusion of PER

Organizers:
        Noah Finkelstein (noah.finkelstein@colorado.edu), University of Colorado, Boulder
        Melissa Dancy, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Where: California Suite
When: 8:15 – 9:45 & 3:45 – 5:15, Thursday, August 5

Goal: Participants will begin to explore the broad question of why and how PER-informed practices are taken up (or not). The particular focus of this session is on the graduate, postdoc, and faculty preparation in physics education research and related reforms. In this session we address two interrelated and important themes: i) grad, postdoc and faculty development ii) the broader systemic frameworks that shape faculty practice.

Theme: While the question of transfer of student knowledge from one domain to another is compelling, many of these results (and curricula built on these results) remain compartmentalized because of another failure of transfer--- to faculty practices. This session, as described by the title, will examine some of the factors influencing the transfer of (or scaling and sustaining of) physics education research and physics education research influenced reforms. The common focus of each of these posters is on faculty or future faculty development, programs that foster such development, and challenges to the broad preparation of current and future faculty.

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.

Targeted Poster Session: TP-D

Issues in Studying Transfer of Problem Solving Skills

Organizers:
       Kathleen A. Harper (harper.217@osu.edu), The Ohio State University
       Thomas Foster (tfoster@siue.edu), Southern Illinois University -- Edwardsville
        David P. Maloney (maloney@ipfw.edu), Indiana Univ. Purdue Univ.  Fort Wayne
Where:  Orchard Room II & III
When:  1:45 – 3:15 & 3:45 – 5:15, Thursday, August 5

Goal: Participants will leave the session with a sense of the current status of research about transfer in the domain of problem solving, how this research can inform classroom practice, an idea of the issues that might be reported on in the near future, and a better understanding of how research in this area is conducted. We will expose participants to several aspects of transfer related to physics problem solving. Some of these aspects are currently being explored, while others need to be addressed in the near future. We will present both types, relate them to the current state of knowledge in this area, and describe ways in which these studies are or might be executed.

Theme: As one of the co-organizers put it, 'Transfer is the holy grail of problem solving.' It is such a huge part of determining the effectiveness of any instructional intervention, and in the area of problem solving, in particular, it's quite difficult to design an effective study. Getting some of these issues out in the open for discussion will be of value to problem solving researchers and 'consumers' alike.

Targeted Poster Session: TP-E

Determining Transfer of Learning with Longitudinal Studies Using Grade and Demographic Data on Individual Students

Organizer:
       Wendell Potter (potter@physics.ucdavis.edu), UC Davis, Physics Education Group
Where:  Forest Suite
When:  1:45 – 3:15 & 3:45 – 5:15, Thursday, August 5

Goal: Participants will see examples of research studies that make use of grade and demographic data on individual students that can easily be obtained, both for particular physics courses as well as data on performance in other courses. Although these kinds of data, as opposed to aggregated data, are available, studies using these data are not particularly common in PER. Participants will be able to explore with the presenters some of the research questions, particularly related to transfer of learning, that studies using these kinds of data can address, as well as more practical issues relating to obtaining these data.

Theme: Ultimately, we are all interested in student learning. There are a variety of ways to probe learning, but there is one universally used measure: grades. Although grades are more closely tied to student performance than to learning, they are a readily available source of useful data on student performance. The advantage of grades is that they are automatically kept and archived, as are demographic data on individual students. With the now complete computerization of registrars’ records, these data can be easily obtained by researchers. Also, with a little more effort, data on individual student performance within particular physics courses is available. The availability of these kinds of data makes it possible to track individual student performance over time, rather than simply observing aggregate performance by looking at class averages.

Many research questions having to do with transfer of learning can be addressed using data that tracks individual student performance. These questions include those that relate to the effects of pre-requisite knowledge and understanding on subsequent performance in physics courses. These questions might relate to transferability of skills and abilities developed in introductory physics courses to performance in courses that students take following their introductory physics. Or, these questions might relate to transferability of skill and abilities developed in one part of a physics course to performance in other parts of the course.

This targeted poster session will show examples of how data that tracks individual student performance can be used to address the kinds of questions mentioned in the previous paragraph.