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Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
written by Adrian M. Madsen, Sarah B. McKagan, and Eleanor C. Sayre
In this meta-analysis, we synthesize the results of 24 studies using the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) and the Maryland Physics Expectations Survey (MPEX) to answer several questions: (1) How does physics instruction impact students' beliefs? (2) When do physics majors develop expert-like beliefs? and (3) How do students' beliefs impact their learning of physics? We report that in typical physics classes, students' beliefs deteriorate or at best stay the same. There are a few types of interventions, including an explicit focus on model-building and (or) developing expert-like beliefs that lead to significant improvements in beliefs. Further, small courses and those for elementary education and non-science majors also result in improved beliefs. However, because the available data over-samples certain types of classes, it is unclear whether these improvements are actually due to the interventions, or due to the small class size, or student populations typical of the kinds of classes in which these interventions are most often used. Physics majors tend to enter their undergraduate education with more expert-like beliefs than non-majors and these beliefs remain relatively stable throughout their undergraduate careers. Thus, typical physics courses appear to be selecting students who already have strong beliefs, rather than supporting students in developing strong beliefs. There is a small correlation between students' incoming beliefs about physics and their gains on conceptual mechanics surveys. This suggests that students with more expert-like incoming beliefs may learn more in their physics courses, but this finding should be further explored and replicated.
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education - Basic Research
- Student Characteristics
= Affect
= Skills
General Physics
- Physics Education Research
- Graduate/Professional
- Reference Material
= Article
= Research study
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License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
Rights Holder:
Adrian Madsen, Sarah B. McKagan, Eleanor C. Sayre
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created July 27, 2015 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
October 20, 2017 by Bruce Mason
Last Update
when Cataloged:
June 2, 2015
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AIP Format
A. Madsen, S. McKagan, and E. Sayre, , Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11 (1), 010115 (2015), WWW Document, (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115).
AJP/PRST-PER
A. Madsen, S. McKagan, and E. Sayre, How physics instruction impacts students’ beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11 (1), 010115 (2015), <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115>.
APA Format
Madsen, A., McKagan, S., & Sayre, E. (2015, June 2). How physics instruction impacts students’ beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies. Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res., 11(1), 010115. Retrieved December 5, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115
Chicago Format
Madsen, A, S. McKagan, and E. Sayre. "How physics instruction impacts students’ beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11, no. 1, (June 2, 2015): 010115, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115 (accessed 5 December 2024).
MLA Format
Madsen, Adrian, Sarah B. McKagan, and Eleanor Sayre. "How physics instruction impacts students’ beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11.1 (2015): 010115. 5 Dec. 2024 <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115>.
BibTeX Export Format
@article{ Author = "Adrian Madsen and Sarah B. McKagan and Eleanor Sayre", Title = {How physics instruction impacts students’ beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.}, Volume = {11}, Number = {1}, Pages = {010115}, Month = {June}, Year = {2015} }
Refer Export Format

%A Adrian Madsen %A Sarah B. McKagan %A Eleanor Sayre %T How physics instruction impacts students' beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 11 %N 1 %D June 2, 2015 %P 010115 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Journal Article %A Madsen, Adrian %A McKagan, Sarah B. %A Sayre, Eleanor %D June 2, 2015 %T How physics instruction impacts students' beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 11 %N 1 %P 010115 %8 June 2, 2015 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010115


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