PERC 2021 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Factors Affecting Introductory Physics Students’ Quantitative Reasoning Skills and Attitudes at a Large, Hispanic-Serving University |
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| Abstract: | The Physics and Astronomy Department at San Francisco State University is undertaking a comprehensive reform of our introductory physics laboratory courses, including training graduate teaching assistants, reflective journaling, and a move away from the previously used verification-style labs. As we make these changes, we have been administering a variety of surveys to gain insight into students' skills, attitudes, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging in the lab environment. The survey used for this study is the Quantitative Reasoning for College Science (QuaRCS) assessment, which measures students' performance in numerical skills commonly used in STEM (eg. graph reading, table reading, arithmetic, proportional reasoning, estimation, percentages, etc.) as well as their attitudes surrounding quantitative reasoning. Between Fall 2018 - Spring 2021 we collected roughly 5000 QuaRCS responses across the following courses prior to instruction: a three-semester calculus-based physics sequence targeted toward engineering, computer science and physical science majors; a two-semester algebra-based physics sequence targeted toward students in the biosciences; a one-semester conceptual physics course; and a one-semester conceptual astronomy course. Through factor analysis and mediation analysis of these data, we identify factors affecting students' quantitative skills performance, such as numerical self-efficacy, numerical anxiety, numerical relevancy, school math affect, daily life math affect, and course motivation. Through this analysis, we can better understand the attributes of students at SFSU that contribute to their success. By leveraging these attributes in the introductory labs we hope to better support the diverse population of students in our courses. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
| Session Time: | Poster Session 2 Room A |
| Poster Number: | 2A-4 |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Vernon Wetzell San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA 94132 |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Kim Coble; San Francisco State University Kate Follette, Amherst College |
