Learning Attitudes of UnderRepresented Students in College
Physics
Yianna Fantrazzo
Dr. Daniel MacIsaac,
State University of New York
College at Buffalo
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Main Purpose:
Explore the learning attitudes of students in the
college physics course :
 Observe if there are any differences among
students of different levels of study (i.e.
freshman, senior)
 Investigate any similarities between student
with similar characteristics based on specific
focusing identifiers.
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Literature Review:
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
Pupils' attitudes towards science as they
progressed through secondary school
declines, and the decline is more
pronounced for female pupils (Barmby,
2008).

Attitude changes are effected by experiences
in and outside of the classroom setting
(Hazari, 2007)
Literature review con’t.
In similar studies (Perkins, 2005):
 positive correlations between particular
student beliefs and conceptual learning gains
 positive correlations between student
retention and favorable beliefs in select
categories.
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Literature Review con’t.
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In a study at the University of California, San
Diego show (Gire,2007):
 All years of physics majors have more prior
knowledge thank non-physics major
students.
 The first three years of majors are less
expert-like than graduate students
 The students in the fourth year of the major
are comparable to graduate students.
Focusing Characteristics




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Area of study
Year of study
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Employment
Dependants
Methods
Colorado Learning Attitudes of Students
Survey (CLASS):
 42 Multiple choice evaluating the students
perception of personal learning style and
their attitude relating to the content
 Plus 6 questions in order to group and
identify student characteristics
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Examples
To understand physics I discuss it with friends
and other students.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
It is possible to explain physics ideas without
mathematical formulas.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
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Methods con’t.
Interviews:
 1-2 students volunteers in each class to
provide another assessment of students’
perception.
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Participants

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Approx.120 non-calculus based introductory
physics students.
Approx. 80-100 calculus based introductory
physics students
Approx. 30-50 upper level physics students
Approx. 60 graduate physics students
Interviews


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10 Under-represented student, 2-3 in every
class
Offering a second assessment of the
attitudes of the students.
Analysis/ tentative results
Data will be analyzed in the September using
the same tool used in previous CLASS
studies.
The analysis tool scores student responses in
seven categories.
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Analysis/ tentative results con’t.
The 7 scoring categories:
 Sense making
 Meta-cognition
 How to learn
 Coherence.
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Reality personal view
Reality world view
Math
Conclusion
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
Student overall attitudes of physics may be
affected by characteristics of the student

Student learning attitudes may change as
students progress from year to year of study.
References
Barmby, P. K. (2008). Examining changing attitudes in secondary school
science. International Journal of Science Education , 1075-1093.
Gire, E. P. (2007). Characterizing the Epistemological Development of
Physics Majors. AIP Conference Proceedings , 65-68.
Hazari, Z. T. (2007). Gender differences in introductory university physics
performance: The influence of high school physics preparation and
affective factors. Science Education , 847-876.
Perkins, K. A. (2005). Correlating Student beliefs with Students Learning
Using The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey. AIP
Conference Proceedings , 61-64.
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