Investigation of the effect of ranking tasks of student understanding of key astronomy topics
Year: 2009
Type: dissertation
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: This research concerns the development and testing of a new type of introductory \nastronomy curriculum material called ranking tasks. Ranking tasks are a novel form of \nconceptual exercise in which students are presented with (usually) pictures or diagrams \nthat describe up to six slightly different variations of a basic physical situation. Students \nare then asked to make a comparative judgment identifying the order or ranking of the \nvarious situations based on some physical outcome or result. These exercises are easily \nincorporated as collaborative group activities into the traditional lecture-based classroom. \nThis study developed design guidelines for ranking tasks based on several learning \ntheories and classroom pilot studies. A single-group repeated measures experiment was \nthen conducted using eight key introductory astronomy topics with 250 students at the \nUniversity of Arizona in the Fall of 2004. Our research questions were: \n* Do in-class collaborative ranking task exercises result in student conceptual gains \nwhen incorporated into traditional lecture-based instruction? \n* Are these gains significant in terms of effect size measures commonly used in \neducation research? \n* What value do students perceive in the use of in-class ranking tasks exercises? \nThe study found that average assessment test scores across the eight astronomy topics \nincreased from 32% on the start-of-semester pretest to 61% after traditional lecture, to \n77% after the ranking task exercises. A mixed factors ANOVA confirmed a significant \nrise in test scores after the ranking tasks (alpha = 0.05). The average normalized gain \non the post-ranking task tests was 0.41, with a Cohen’s d effect size of 0.62 which is \ndescribed in the literature as moderately large. Interestingly, we found that the \nnormalized gain from the ranking tasks was equal to the entire previous gain from \ntraditional instruction. A repeated-factor ANOVA found that the use of ranking tasks \nequally benefited both genders and also both high and low-scoring median groups on the \npretest. A Lickert-scale attitude survey found that 83% of the students participating in the \n16 week study believed that the ranking task exercises helped their understanding of core \nastronomy concepts. Based on these results, we assert that adding collaborative ranking \ntask exercises to a traditional classroom instruction can significantly improve student \nunderstanding of key introductory astronomy concepts.
Author: David W. Hudgins
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2118352813