Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The purpose of the research was to (1) explore how students' scientific reasoning in control of variables skill levels evolve and (2) determine how a lab curriculum impacts students' progression of control of variables skill levels in introductory physics lab at a two-year college.The participants in the study consisted of sixty-nine students enrolled in the algebra/trigonometry-based Physics I Lab at UC Blue Ash, an open access, two-year college, which is a regional college of the University of Cincinnati.The study measured the evolution of students' scientific reasoning in control of variables (COV) with nine of twenty-seven multiplechoice questions on the Inquiry for Scientific Thinking and Reasoning (iSTAR) that focused on COV skills.Findings on individual student reasoning in COV skills early in the term were used to compare the early term COV skills of the two subgroups to determine subgroup equivalency so that the two subgroups could be treated as one population.Furthermore, coding the lab curriculum was compared to the findings on the development of students' COV skills to determine the impact of the curriculum.Findings indicated that the development of students' scientific reasoning in COV skills varied at different COV skill levels and for students with different prior COV reasoning abilities.The low ability group scored at or below the chance level for all but the lowest iSTAR COV questions at the lowest COV skill levels.The findings suggest that COV skill levels at the intermediate to high levels need to be more explicitly scaffolded for low ability students.The mid ability group demonstrated the most improvement at the low-intermediate and intermediate COV skill levels.The effect of the curriculum was greatest for this mid ability group indicating that the lab curriculum appeared to be targeted most effectively at this group.The high ability group experienced a ceiling effect at the lowest COV skill levels, demonstrated significant improvement at the low-intermediate COV level and no iii improvement with low mean scores at the highest COV levels, similar to all students in this study.This study's results indicate that various student populations may develop their SR skills in different ways and may need different instructional interventions.Although this study determined the lab curriculum had a large effect on the development of students' COV skill levels, the results were not able to determine how the lab curriculum affected students' COV skills by making explicit connections to instructional events.The lab curriculum heavily targeted the low COV skill levels, as well as the intermediate COV skill level.Although students did not show significant improvement at the low COV level, they did demonstrate high mean pre-scores leaving little room for growth.The lab curriculum focused much less on the high COV skill level where students demonstrated no improvement along with low mean scores at this level.This suggests that the lab curriculum could be improved to better target the higher COV skill levels.
Author: Krista E. Wood
Institution: University of Cincinnati
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2548188118