Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course

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written by Scott W. Bonham

Multiple scales reflecting student effort were developed using factor and scale analysis on data from an introductory physics course. This data included interactions with an on-line homework system. One of the scales displays many characteristics of a metric of the individual level of engagement in the course. This scale is shown to be a good predictor of performance on class exams and the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Furthermore, normalized learning gains on the FCI are well predicted by this scale while pre-instructional FCI scores provide no additional predictive ability, agreeing with observations by Richard Hake. This scale also correlates strongly with epistemological beliefs that learning is related to effort and is the responsibility of the student. The factors that enter into this scale, writing and mastering expert-like problem-solving, are consistent with this being a measure of individual levels of class engagement.

Physics Education Research Conference 2007
Part of the PER Conference series
Greensboro, NC: August 1-2, 2007
Volume 951, Pages 57-60

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Published: November 12, 2007

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education - Applied Research - Active Learning - Technology = Computers Education - Basic Research - Assessment = Instruments - Cognition = Cognition Development - Research Design & Methodology = Data	- Lower Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Research study

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Format:: application/pdf
Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2820946
Access Rights:: Limited free access and
Available by subscription and
Available for purchase
Restriction:: © 2007 2007 American Institute of Physics.
DOI:: 10.1063/1.2820946
PACS:: 01.40.Fk 01.40.Di 01.50.H- 01.40.Ha
Keywords:: FCI, PERC 2007, educational courses, factor analysis, learning by example, physics, scale analysis, student experiments
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created June 3, 2009 by Jenny Rempel
Record Updated:: July 16, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: November 12, 2007

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=9047">Bonham, Scott. "Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, August 1-2, 2007.</a>

AIP Format

S. Bonham, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, 2007, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9047&DocID=1978).

AJP/PRST-PER

S. Bonham, Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, 2007, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9047&DocID=1978>.

APA Format

Bonham, S. (2007, August 1-2). Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC. Retrieved March 26, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9047&DocID=1978

Chicago Format

Bonham, Scott. "Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, August 1-2, 2007. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9047&DocID=1978 (accessed 26 March 2025).

MLA Format

Bonham, Scott. "Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course." Physics Education Research Conference 2007. Greensboro, NC: 2007. 57-60 Vol. 951 of PER Conference. 26 Mar. 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9047&DocID=1978>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Scott Bonham", Title = {Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2007}, Pages = {57-60}, Address = {Greensboro, NC}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {951}, Month = {August 1-2}, Year = {2007} }

Refer Export Format

%A Scott Bonham %T Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course %S PER Conference %V 951 %D August 1-2 2007 %P 57-60 %C Greensboro, NC %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9047&DocID=1978 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2007 %O August 1-2 %O application/pdf

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%0 Conference Proceedings %A Bonham, Scott %D August 1-2 2007 %T Measuring Student Effort and Engagement in an Introductory Physics Course %B Physics Education Research Conference 2007 %C Greensboro, NC %V 951 %P 57-60 %S PER Conference %8 August 1-2 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9047&DocID=1978

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