More Like this

1. Algebra and other relevant physics skills: The effectiveness of mastery practice on skills accuracy and exam grade in introductory physics

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.21.010121  

   Liu, Qiaoyi; Moni_Prakash, Harish; Heckler, Andrew F (March 2025, Physical Review Physics Education Research)

   NA (Ed.)

   We conducted two studies to investigate the extent to which brief, spaced, mastery practice on skills relevant to introductory physics affects student performance. The first study investigated the effect of practice of “specific” physics skills, each one relevant to only one or a few items on the course exam. This study employed a quasiexperimental design with 766 students assigned to “intervention” or “control” conditions by lecture section sharing common exams. Results of the first study indicate significant improvement in the performance for only some of the exam items relevant to the specific skills practiced. We also observed between-section performance differences on other exam items not relevant to training, which may be due to specific prior quiz items from individual instructors. The second study investigated the effect of practice on the “general” skill of algebra relevant to introductory physics, a skill which was relevant to most of the exam items. This study employed a similar quasiexperimental design with 363 students assigned to treatment or control conditions, and we also administered a reliable pre- and post-test assessment of the algebra skills that was iteratively developed for this project. Results from the second study indicate that 75% of students had high accuracy on the algebra pretest. Students in the control condition who scored low on the pretest gained about 0.7 standard deviations on the post-test, presumably from engagement with the course alone, and students in the algebra practice condition had statistically similar gains, indicating no observed effect of algebra practice on algebra pre- to post-test gains. In contrast, we find some potential evidence that the algebra practice improved final exam performance for students with high pretest scores and did not benefit students with low pretest scores, although this result is inconclusive: the point estimate of the effect size was 0.24 for high pretest scoring students, but the 95% confidence interval [ $-0.01$, 0.48] slightly overlapped with zero. Further, we find a statistically significant positive effect of algebra practice on exam items that have higher algebraic complexity and no effect for items with low complexity. One possible explanation for the added benefit of algebra practice for high-scoring students is fluency in algebra skills may have improved. Overall, our observations provide some evidence that spaced, mastery practice is beneficial for exam performance for specific and general skills, and that students who are better prepared in algebra may be especially benefitting from mastery practice in relevant algebra skills in terms of improved final exam performance. 

   more » « less
2. Examining Engineering Students’ Shift in Mindsets Over the Course of a Semester: A Longitudinal Study

   Verdin, D.; Perez, C. L.; Krinsky, S.; Allen, E. L. (June 2023, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Students (like all people) have elements of both growth and fixed mindsets. We studied shifts in both types of student mindsets over three one-semester courses. We found no significant change in students’ growth mindset at the beginning of the semester compared to the end of the semester. However, students’ fixed mindsets showed a statistically significant increase from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester. Two multilevel models were used to understand why students’ fixed mindsets may have increased 1) personal sourcesmastery goal, performance goal, and internal recognition, and 2) situational sourcesclassroom goal orientations and external recognition. Students’ endorsement of a performance goal orientation, which focuses on demonstrating competence and managing others’ perception of their abilities, increased their fixed mindset views at the end of the semester. In the model focused on situational sources, we found that students’ fixed mindset increased when they perceived their classroom environment endorsed a performance-approach goal structure and by receiving external recognition. When comparing both models, students’ fixed mindset increase was largely explained by classroom environmental sources. Specifically, students’ fixed mindsets increased when they perceived that their classroom environment valued a demonstration of competence (i.e., classroom performance-approach). Being recognized as an engineer by peers and instructors also increased students’ fixed views of their abilities. Conversely, one situational source was found to decrease students’ fixed mindset views, i.e., a classroom environment that promotes mastery goals. Our study points to an apparent and crucial role engineering classroom environments have in promoting certain mindsets. The study concludes with one pedagogical strategy that may help mitigate the inadvertent promotion of a fixed mindset, e.g., a mastery learning pedagogical intervention. 

   more » « less
3. A Flexible Formative/Summative Grading System for Large Courses

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3545945.3569810  

   Lionelle, Albert; Ghosh, Sudipto; Moraes, Marcia; Winick, Tran; Nielsen, Lindsey (March 2023, SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   Students in entry level CS courses come from diverse backgrounds and are learning study and time management skills. Our belief for their success is that they must master a growth mindset and that the final grade should represent their final mastery of topics in the course. Traditional grading systems tend to be too restrictive and hinder a growth mindset. They require strict deadlines that fail to easily account for student accommodations and learning differences. Furthermore, they run into averaging and scaling issues with 59% of a score counting as failing, making it difficult for students to redeem grades even if they later demonstrate mastery of topics. We designed a formative/summative grading system in our CS0 and CS1 classes for both on-campus and online students to support a structured growth mindset. Students can redo formative assignments and are provided flexible deadlines. They demonstrate their mastery in summative assignments. While being inspired by other grading systems, our system works seamlessly with auto-grading tools used in large, structured courses. Despite the flexibility, the courses provided a level of rigor before allowing students to continue onto the next course. Overall, 65% of students resubmitted assignments increasing their scores, participated in ungraded assignments, and used formative assignments for additional practice without a distinction between race or gender. These students went to the traditional follow-on CS2 course and 94% passed compared with 71% who took CS1 with a traditional grading system. 

   more » « less
4. Evaluating the effectiveness of two methods to improve students' problem solving performance after studying an online tutorial

   https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2019.pr.Chen  

   Chen, Zhongzhou; Whitcomb, Kyle M.; Guthrie, Matthew W.; Singh, Chandralekha (January 2020, Physics Education Research Conference 2019)

   We compared students' learning behavior when completing identical online calculus-based physics homework assignments organized in two ways. One was designed for mastery learning where content is divided into smaller units, and students are required to attempt the assessment once before accessing the content. Students can proceed to the next unit after passing the assessment either before or after studying the content. The second is a conventional design in which students first study a set of instructional materials equivalent to several mastery units then complete multiple assessment problems at once. Our major findings are: 1. in the mastery condition, students solved more problems correctly either immediately after studying the instructional content, or on attempts before accessing the instructional content; 2. for students who solved similar numbers of problems correctly, the mastery condition students spent significantly less time studying compared to the traditional condition students; and 3. students who did not pass mastery units on their initial assessment attempts spent similar amounts of time studying as traditional condition students. 

   more » « less
5. Comparing student behavior in mastery and conventional style online physics homework

   https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2019.pr.Guthrie  

   Guthrie, Matthew W.; Chen, Zhongzhou (January 2020, Physics Education Research Conference 2019)

   We compared students' learning behavior when completing identical online calculus-based physics homework assignments organized in two ways. One was designed for mastery learning where content is divided into smaller units, and students are required to attempt the assessment once before accessing the content. Students can proceed to the next unit after passing the assessment either before or after studying the content. The second is a conventional design in which students first study a set of instructional materials equivalent to several mastery units then complete multiple assessment problems at once. Our major findings are: 1. in the mastery condition, students solved more problems correctly either immediately after studying the instructional content, or on attempts before accessing the instructional content; 2. for students who solved similar numbers of problems correctly, the mastery condition students spent significantly less time studying compared to the traditional condition students; and 3. students who did not pass mastery units on their initial assessment attempts spent similar amounts of time studying as traditional condition students. 

   more » « less