<p> This study tracks the shifts in attitudes of students in a large, entry level physics course at CSU Long Beach (PHYS 151 - Mechanics and Heat). Intriguing differences in attitude shifts of <i>A, B,</i> and <i>C</i> students are observed using the CLASS (Colorado Learning about Science Survey) instrument. The CLASS is a tool designed to measure the attitudes and approaches used in physics. The survey is used to measure experts and novices in the field. Expert and novice-like beliefs are calculated for the <i>A, B, </i> and <i>C</i> students. We found that the Problem Solving Sophistication category had the most differences in students’ responses between <i>A</i> and <sub>C</sub> students. With <sub>A</sub> students having had three expert shifts (moving toward expert-like beliefs) and no novice shifts in this category, and <sub>C</sub> students having six novice shifts (moving toward novice-like beliefs). An ANOVA test and a t-test were performed to ensure the data was significant. One category emerged as being statistically significant, the Problem Solving Sophistication Unfavorable score, with a p-value of 0.039 when comparing the <i>A</i> and <i> C</i> students, and a p-value of 0.044 when the <i>A</i> and <i> B</i> students are grouped together and compared to the <i>C</i> students. With the t-test findings this infers that the <i>C</i> students are missing something that the <i>A</i> and <i>B</i> students are not. The intriguing question for further study is: can the C students be turned into <i>A-B</i> students by explicit pedagogy and curriculum aimed at transmitting both content and attitudes? </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10144821 |
| Date | 11 October 2016 |
| Creators | Watanabe, Erick James |
| Publisher | California State University, Long Beach |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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