Learning Gains in an Inquiry Oriented Physics Course for In

Learning Gains in an Inquiry Oriented Physics
Course for In-Service High School Teachers
Graham E. Oberem
and
Paul G. Jasien
California State University, San Marcos

Background:

The Physics by Inquiry¹ curriculum has been used at California State University, San Marcos, in an intensive three-week summer course for in-service middle and high school teachers. We taught two-modules each year for three consecutive years. Table 1 lists the content modules by year.

Table 1. Topics covered in the IOP course.

Year	Topic I	Topic II
1	Kinematics	Heat & Temperature
2	Electric Circuits	Light & Optics
3	Electrostatics	Magnetism

We used content-based tests to measure the short-term and long-term learning gains of the participants. Our results are very positive and indicate the value of this mode of instruction.

Short-Term Results:

We computed the normalized learning gain for each participant and the average learning gain for classtakes account of the distribution of pretest scores and is calculated as the difference between the average pre- and post-test scores divided by the maximum possible score minus the average pretest score:

This approach to calculating learning gains has been widely used in the context of introductory mechanics courses where the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) has become a standard measure of student performance².

Our results are summarized in Table 2 below. In traditional lecture-based courses, learning gains of about 0.20 are common. The gains we measure are substantially higher. The distribution of scores changed dramatically between the pretest and the posttest in every case. To see a graph of score distributions for a module, click on its name in the table below.

Table 2. Short-term learning gains by module topic.

Topic	N	Average Pre-%	Average Post-%	Gain
Heat & Temperature	30	41	65	0.41
Kinematics	30	41	66	0.42
Electric Circuits	36	54	88	0.74
Light & Optics	36	51	75	0.49
Electrostatics	33	52	71	0.40
Magnetism	33	37	61	0.38

Long-Term Results:

We gave the content-based posttest to approximately two thirds of the participants six months after the end of the course. Each year, only one module was tested in this way. With the exception of the Electrostatics module, there was no significant change in the long-term posttest score from what it was at the end of the summer course. Table 3 below shows the results of the long-term study.

Table 3. Comparison of short- and long-term average test scores.

Topic	N	Average Pre-%	Average Post-%	Average Long-%
Heat & Temperature	18	39	62	64
Electric Circuits	24	52	87	82
Electrostatics	22	53	74	65

Conclusions:

Our results indicate that substantial conceptual learning gains can be achieved in a three-week inquiry-oriented physics course. Also, the value of the inquiry-oriented approach is demonstrated. For the most part, these learning gains are sustained well beyond the end of the course. We also investigated factors such as participant experience and background. Such factors do not appear to influence the ability of teachers to learn from the course.

References:

1. L.C. McDermott and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington,Physics by Inquiry, Volumes 1 and 2. (John Wiley, New York, 1996)

2. D. Hestenes, M. Wells, and G. Swackhammer, "The Force Concept Inventory," The Physics Teacher 30, 141 (March 1992).

See also:

L.C. McDermott, P.S. Shaffer, and C.P. Contantinou, "Preparing Teachers to Teach Physics and Physical Science by Inquiry," Physics Education 35, 411 (November 2000).

A full version of this paper has been submitted to The Physics Teacher for publication.
This work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, NSF Grant #: ISE 9731367

Year

Topic I

Topic II