Creating an active learning introductory physics curriculum

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis L. Albers
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Introductory Physics ◽  
Physics Curriculum

scholarly journals Development and Evaluation of a Large-Enrollment, Active-Learning Physics Curriculum

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Price ◽  
Fred Goldberg ◽  
Stephen J. Robinson ◽  
Danielle Harlow ◽  
Michael McKean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Large Enrollment ◽  
Physics Curriculum

scholarly journals Teaching symmetry in the introductory physics curriculum

2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 348-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher T. Hill ◽  
Leon M. Lederman
Keyword(s):  
Introductory Physics ◽  
Physics Curriculum

Beyond “Active Learning”: How the ICAP Framework Permits More Acute Examination of the Popular Peer Instruction Pedagogy

2019 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. BRYAN HENDERSON
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Stem Education ◽  
Cognitive Engagement ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Introductory Physics ◽  
Peer Instruction ◽  
Learning Gains ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Physics Classes ◽  
Student Discussion

Peer Instruction, a pedagogy utilizing handheld classroom response technology to promote student discussion, is one of the most popular research-based instructional practices in STEM education. Yet, few studies have shed theoretical light on how and why Peer Instruction is effective. In this article, J. Bryan Henderson explores the Peer Instruction technique through a controlled methodology where theory—in this case the Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) framework for differentiating various modes of cognitive engagement—drives pedagogical adaptations that serve as the differing experimental conditions. He finds that among the four high school physics classes he studied which employed Peer Instruction, the students achieved learning gains that, when normalizing for pretest performance, on average were more than 10 percent greater than those of college students not exposed to the ICAP-driven methodology when learning introductory physics. This article serves as an example to the educational research community of how the ICAP framework can help illuminate theoretical mechanisms behind instructional techniques in ways the more general use of the term active learning cannot.

scholarly journals Advantages and Challenges of Using Physics Curricula as a Model for Reforming an Undergraduate Biology Course

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Donovan ◽  
L. J. Atkins ◽  
I. Y. Salter ◽  
D. J. Gallagher ◽  
R. F. Kratz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Student Understanding ◽  
Introductory Physics ◽  
Introductory Biology ◽  
Student Work ◽  
Undergraduate Biology ◽  
How People Learn ◽  
Introductory Classes ◽  
Physics Curriculum

We report on the development of a life sciences curriculum, targeted to undergraduate students, which was modeled after a commercially available physics curriculum and based on aspects of how people learn. Our paper describes the collaborative development process and necessary modifications required to apply a physics pedagogical model in a life sciences context. While some approaches were easily adapted, others provided significant challenges. Among these challenges were: representations of energy, introducing definitions, the placement of Scientists’ Ideas, and the replicability of data. In modifying the curriculum to address these challenges, we have come to see them as speaking to deeper differences between the disciplines, namely that introductory physics—for example, Newton's laws, magnetism, light—is a science of pairwise interaction, while introductory biology—for example, photosynthesis, evolution, cycling of matter in ecosystems—is a science of linked processes, and we suggest that this is how the two disciplines are presented in introductory classes. We illustrate this tension through an analysis of our adaptations of the physics curriculum for instruction on the cycling of matter and energy; we show that modifications of the physics curriculum to address the biological framework promotes strong gains in student understanding of these topics, as evidenced by analysis of student work.

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