The purpose of this research was to study my effectiveness as a high school physics teacher using a traditional approach to instruction compared to a Modeling approach. The study was conducted at a high school near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both groups consisted of 1 section of honors physics and 1 section of regular physics each. Conceptual understanding and problems solving gains were measured using pre/post Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT) results, respectively. Students level of science reasoning was also measured at the beginning of the school year only, using the Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR). The Modeling instruction group had significantly higher conceptual learning normalized gains as compared to the traditional instruction group. The data show no significant difference in the normalized gains in problem solving ability measured by the MBT. A gender bias was seen, with males having higher gains than females. The data showed that honors students had higher normalized learning gains compared to regular students. Students having higher scientific reasoning scores outperformed their peers in conceptual understanding and problem solving.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07102014-114015 |
| Date | 18 July 2014 |
| Creators | Arseneault, Mark E. |
| Contributors | Cherry, Mike, Slezak, Cyrill, Browne, Dana |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07102014-114015/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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