Exploring University Students’ Expectations and Beliefs about Physics and Physics Learning in a Problem-Based Learning Context

Mehmet Şahin

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75283

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study aimed to determine university students’ expectations and beliefs in a problem-based introductory physics course, how those expectations compare to that of students in other universities, and change as a result of one semester of instruction. In total, 264 freshmen engineering students of Dokuz Eylul University (DEU) in Izmir, Turkey enrolled in the study. The study involved two groups, first group (n = 100) was instructed via modular-based active learning (problembased learning [PBL]) method and second group (n = 164) by traditional lecture method. Data were collected through pre and post application of the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) survey. Students’ average favorable and unfavorable percentage scores were determined. The results showed that average favorable scores of both groups were substantially lower than that of experts and that of other university students reported in the literature. Students’ favorable scores have dropped significantly after one semester of instruction. PBL and traditional groups displayed similar degree of ‘expert’ beliefs. The results of this study showed that university students’ expectations and beliefs about physics and physics learning have deteriorated as a result of one semester of instruction whether in PBL or traditional context. Implications of the results were discussed.

Highlights

It has been suggested that students’ expectations and beliefs about physics influence their study strategies and were related to their conceptual development (Chu, Treagust, & Chandrasegaran, 2008)
Student responses were analyzed through the 6 dimensions of the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX), which revealed the structure of their beliefs on learning physics (Table 4)
Problem-based learning (PBL) students agreed with the favorable responses about 35% - 65% of the time in the first deployment, 25% - 51% of the time in the post deployment and traditional students agreed with the favorable responses about 34% - 53% of the time in the first deployment, and 31% - 47% of the time in the post deployment in the clusters of the MPEX

Summary

Introduction

It has been suggested that students’ expectations and beliefs about physics influence their study strategies and were related to their conceptual development (Chu, Treagust, & Chandrasegaran, 2008). Expectations are beliefs about the learning process and the structure of knowledge (Mistades, 2007). These beliefs have shown to affect how students learn and what they want to learn. Helping students attain more expert-like beliefs can foster their learning. Researchers have developed a series of instructional approaches. One of them is problem-based learning approach which has Problem-based learning

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion