Correlations between student discussion behavior, attitudes, and learning

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Correlations between student discussion behavior,
attitudes, and learning

• Gerd Kortemeyer
• Michigan State University
• AAPT 2007 Summer Meeting

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Overview

• LearningOnline Network with CAPA (LON-CAPA)
• Online Homework
• Online Homework Discussions
• Online Homework Discussion Analysis

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LON-CAPA

• LON-CAPA is a free open-source course management
  system, developed with a strong emphasis on
  science and math
• Used at over 50 high schools and over 40
  university
• Shared content pool with over 275,000 resources
• Over 100,000 homework problems
• In addition problem libraries for standard
  physics textbooks

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Online Homework

• The problems are randomizing
• Every student gets a different version

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Online Homework

• The problems can be quite simple

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Online Homework

• or quite complex

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Online Homework

• Different types

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Online Homework

• Which type of homework do students profit from
  the most?
• Which kind of student profits the most from
  homework?

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Homework Discussions

• Student discussions are a window into the thought
  processes of students
• Usually done by taping students working in
  groups, transcribing, analyzing
• Work intensive
• Often research setting, not actual class work
• Small groups and sample sizes

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Homework Discussion

• Discussion directly attached

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Example Problem

• A bug that has a mass mb4g walks from the center
  to the edge of a disk that is freely turning at
  32rpm. The disk has a mass of md11g. If the
  radius of the disk is R29cm, what is the new
  rate of spinning in rpm?

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Expert Solution

• No external torque, angular momentum is conserved
• Bug is small compared to disk, can be seen as
  point mass

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What do Students Learn

• Almost all students got this problem correct in
  the end
• Did almost all students learn the concept?
• Did almost all students do what we expected from
  this problem?

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Student Discussion

• Student A What is that bug doing on a disk? Boo
  to physics.
• Student B OHH YEAH
• ok this should work it worked for me
• Moments of inertia that are important....
• OK first the Inertia of the particle is mr2
• and of a disk is .5mr2
• OK and angular momentum is conserved
• IWIWo W2pi/T
• then do this
• .5(mass of disk)(radius)2(2pi/T original)
  (mass of bug)
• (radius of bug0)2 (.5(mass of
  disk)(radius)2(2pi/T))
• (mass of bug)(radius of bug)2(2pi/T)
• and solve for T

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Student Discussion (cont.)

• Student C What is T exactly? And do I have to do
  anything to it to get the final RPM?
• Student B ok so T is the period... and
  apparently it works for some and not others....
  try to cancel out some of the things that are
  found on both sides of the equation to get a
  better equation that has less numbers in it
• Student D what did I do wrong?
• This is what I did. initial inertia x initial
  angular velocity final
• inertia x final angular velocity. Imr2,
  angular velocity w... so
• my I initial was (10g)(24 cm2) and w28 rpm.
  The number
• calculated was 161280 g cm2. Then I divided by
  final inertia to
• solve for the final angular speed. I found final
  Inertia by
• ( 10g 2g)(24 cm2)6912. I then found the new
  angular speed to
• be 23.3 rpm. This was wrong...what did I do
  incorrectly?

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Student Discussion (cont.)

• Student H sigh Wow. So, many, little things,
  can go wrong in calculating this. Be careful.
• None of the students commented on
• Bug being point mass
• Result being independent of radius
• No unit conversions needed
• Several wondered about the radius of the bug
• Plug in numbers asap
• Nobody just posted the symbolic answer
• Lots of unnecessary pain

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Quantitative Research

• Classify student discussion contributions
• Types
• Emotional
• Surface
• Procedural
• Conceptual
• Features
• Unrelated
• Solution-Oriented
• Mathematical
• Physics

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Classifying Discussions
Discussions from three introductory physics
courses
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Classifying the Problems

• Classifying the problems by question type
• Multiple Choice (incl. Multiple Response)
• highest percentage of solution-oriented
  discussions (that one is right)
• least number of physics discussions
• Ranking and click-on-image problems
• Physics discussions highest
• Problems with representation-translation (reading
  a graph, etc)
• slightly less procedural discussions
• more negative emotional discussion (complaints)

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Degree of Difficulty

• Harder than 0.6 more pain, no gain

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Good Students Discuss Better?
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Correlations

• Force Concept Inventory (FCI)
• Pre- and Post-Test

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Regression

• PostFCI5,4860,922PreFCI0,24 PercentPhysics
• PostFCI7,6060,857PreFCI-0.042 PercentSolution
• Meaning what?
• Students who contribute 100 solution-oriented
  discussions on the average have 4.2 points (out
  of 30) less on the post-test, controlling for
  pre-test

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Acknowledgements and Website

• Support provided by
• National Science Foundation
• Michigan State University
• The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• Our partner universities
• Visit us at http//www.lon-capa.org/