Sabella & Steinberg, Physics Teacher (1997)

Performance on multiple-choice diagnostics and complementary exam problems

M. S. Sabella & R. N. Steinberg, The Physics Teacher, 35(3), p 150-155 (1997). (link to journal article)

Abstract: Multiple-choice diagnostic tests are becoming increasingly popular at many levels in the physics education community. They are regularly used to assess curriculum and to measure student understanding of basic concepts. Their multiple-choice format makes them easy to implement and analyze. This has led to the great benefit of an increased awareness of students’ conceptual difficulties.

Since its publication in this journal, the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) has become extremely popular with much attention given to student scores. The FCI therefore plays a major role in the development of curriculum and instructional strategies. Despite such importance, there are only a few studies published on how student performance on the FCI correlates with their understanding of the subject matter.

In order to help physics educators interpret the results of the FCI, as well as other multiple-choice diagnostics, it is clear that further research is needed. The Physics Education Research Group at the University of Maryland has written open-ended examination problems that correspond to several FCI questions. The FCI was administered during the last week of the semester and the exam problems were included the following week on final exams of first semester introductory calculus-based physics classes at the University of Maryland. In this article, we describe the correlation between student performance on the FCI and the corresponding exam problems.

Sabella, PhD Dissertation (1999)

Using the context of physics problem solving to evaluate the coherence of student knowledge

M. S. Sabella, Ph.D. Dissertation, E. F. Redish (advisor), (1999). (html TOC and abstract)

pdfs: Intro, Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9

Abstract: We use the context of problem solving to show that students exhibit a local coherence but not global coherence in their physics knowledge. When presented with a problem-solving task, students often activate a coherent set of knowledge called a schema to solve the problem. This schema of strongly related knowledge and procedures. Although the schemas students develop in the physics course are usually sufficient in the class, they are often insufficient for solving complex problems. Complex problems require that students have a deep understanding where they have integrated their qualitative knowledge with their quantitative knowledge and have integrated related physics topics. We show that our students activate schemas consisting of small amounts of knowledge and these schemas are often isolated from other schemas.

Physics Education Research (PER) has shown that students in introductory physics lack a deep understanding of physics principles and concepts. Through research-based curricula, conceptual understanding can be improved. In addition PER has shown that these students can be taught problem solving skills through a modified curriculum. Despite these improvements, students still have difficulty developing a coherent knowledge of physics. In particular, students often have difficulty connecting related physics concepts. In addition, they view quantitative problems and qualitative questions as distinct types of tasks, possessing different types of knowledge and different sets of rules for responding.

We discuss some possible methods that physics instructors and physics education researchers can use to examine coherence in student knowledge. Using these methods, we provide evidence for the local coherence in student physics knowledge by identifying distinct schemas for qualitative and quantitative knowledge. After identifying some of these difficulties in student understanding, we look at how students are connecting their qualitative knowledge to quantitative knowledge after going through concept-based curriculum. The research benefits as well as shortcomings in the concept-based curriculum and talk about possible modifications that may foster coherence. In addition, we compare performance on quantitative questions between a physics class using the traditional problem-solving recitation and a class using Tutorials in Introductory Physics on quantitative problems.

Sabella & Redish, Am J Phys (2007)

Knowledge Organization and Activation in Physics Problem Solving

M. Sabella & E. F. Redish, Am J Phys, 75, p 1017-1029 (2007).

Abstract: Conceptual knowledge is only one aspect of a good knowledge structure: how and when knowledge is activated and used are also important. In this paper, we explore knowledge organization in the context of the resources model of student thinking through observations of student problem-solving behavior on a mechanics task that integrates the concepts of force, motion, and energy. We document in detail that both introductory and advanced students may have knowledge structures with local coherences that may inhibit their access to additional useful knowledge. These results suggest that instructors and researcher need to pay increased attention to how and when students use what they know as well as to what they know.