Learning Concepts First: A Course Structure with Improved Educational Outcomes in the Short, Medium, and Long Terms (Especially for Minority Groups Underrepresented in Physics)

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that a 'Concepts First' course structure in physics improves short-term problem-solving skills, enhances long-term STEM graduation rates, and particularly benefits underrepresented minority students.

Contribution

The paper introduces a 'Concepts First' course design that reorganizes physics instruction to improve educational outcomes for all students, especially minorities.

Findings

Students in the treatment course scored higher on final exams.

Underrepresented minority students achieved comparable scores to others in the treatment.

Students who took Concepts First courses had higher STEM graduation rates.

Abstract

An active learning physics course (treatment) was re-organized in an attempt to increase students' problem solving abilities. This re-organized course covered all of the relevant concepts in the first 6 weeks with the final 4 weeks spent in practice at solving complicated problems (those requiring students to use higher order cognitive abilities). A second active learning course (control) was taught in the same quarter by the same instructor using the same curricular materials but covering material in the standard (chapter-by-chapter) order. After accounting for incoming student characteristics, students from the treatment course scored significantly better than the control for two outcome measures: i) the final exam and ii) their immediately subsequent physics course. More importantly, students from minority groups who are underrepresented in physics had final exam scores as well as class grades that were indistinguishable from the rest of their class if and only if they were in the treatment class. Finally, many of the students in this cohort took a Concepts First course in their third quarter of introductory physics. The students who took at least one Concepts First course are found to have significantly higher rates of graduation with a STEM major than those students from this cohort who did not take a Concepts First course.