Abstract
In a previous study, we found that students' incoming preparation in physics-crudely measured by concept inventory prescores and math SAT or ACT scores-explains 34% of the variation in Physics 1 final exam scores at Stanford University. In this study, we sought to understand the large variation in exam scores not explained by these measures of incoming preparation. Why are some students' successful in physics 1 independent of their preparation? To answer this question, we interviewed 34 students with particularly low concept inventory prescores and math SAT/ACT scores about their experiences in the course. We unexpectedly found a set of common practices and attitudes. We found that students' use of instructional resources had relatively little impact on course performance, while student characteristics, student attitudes, and students' interactions outside the classroom all had a more substantial impact on course performance. These results offer some guidance as to how instructors might help all students succeed in introductory physics courses.
Highlights
Instructors of introductory physics courses frequently observe large variations in student performance in their courses, despite instructors providing the same instruction to all students
Much work in Physics Education Research has been devoted to improving average student performance in introductory courses, but only recently have researchers and instructors begun to ask, what is the cause of these variations in student outcomes and how can they be addressed to help all students be successful? A primary concern in this regard has been differences in course performance between male and female students, URM and majority students, and firstgeneration and continuing generation students [1,2,3,4,5,6]
This is a single year subset of the sample population used in Ref. [6]. From these 394 students, we chose 50 students whose Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) prescores were below the 30th percentile of the class distribution; 25 of these students had taken an additional companion course designed for students without previous experience in physics. These 50 students were selected to represent FMCE postscores that covered a wide range of the score distribution, but they were selected without knowledge of their math SAT or ACT scores, final exam scores, or demographic variables
Summary
Instructors of introductory physics courses frequently observe large variations in student performance in their courses, despite instructors providing the same instruction to all students. We analyzed data from the introductory Mechanics course, Physics 1, at three large research universities and found that differences in average student performance (as measured by final exam scores) between subpopulations of students could all be explained by average differences in students’ math SAT (or ACT) score and physics concept inventory prescore [6]. We found that the only statistically significant predictors performance, of the data available to us, were these two measures of students’ incoming preparation, not demographic characteristics. These measures explained 20–34% of the variation in final exam scores [6].
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