Improving performance in quantum mechanics with explicit incentives to correct mistakes

TL;DR

Providing explicit incentives for students to correct their mistakes in a quantum mechanics course significantly improves their final exam performance, especially for those who initially performed poorly.

Contribution

This study demonstrates that incentivizing mistake correction enhances learning outcomes in upper-level quantum physics courses, a novel approach over four years of research.

Findings

Students with incentives to correct mistakes performed better on final exams.

Incentives had a greater impact on students who performed poorly initially.

Explicit correction incentives can improve learning in advanced physics courses.

Abstract

An earlier investigation found that the performance of advanced students in a quantum mechanics course did not automatically improve from midterm to final exam on identical problems even when they were provided the correct solutions and their own graded exams. Here, we describe a study, which extended over four years, in which upper-level undergraduate students in a quantum physics course were given four identical problems in both the midterm exam and final exam. Approximately half of the students were given explicit incentives to correct their mistakes in the midterm exam. In particular, they could get back up to 50\% of the points lost on each midterm exam problem. The solutions to the midterm exam problems were provided to all students in both groups but those who corrected their mistakes were provided the solution after they submitted their corrections to the instructor. The performance on the same problems on the final exam suggests that students who were given incentives to correct their mistakes significantly outperformed those who were not given an incentive. The incentive to correct the mistakes had greater impact on the final exam performance of students who had not performed well on the midterm exam.