Impact of instructional approach on students' epistemologies about experimental physics

TL;DR

This study investigates how different instructional approaches in undergraduate physics labs influence students' understanding and attitudes towards experimental physics, using survey data across multiple institutions.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the impact of transformed curricula and pedagogy on students' epistemologies in experimental physics courses.

Findings

Transformed curricula correlate with more expert-like student epistemologies.

Gender and major influence students' responses to instructional approaches.

Data from multiple institutions supports the effectiveness of innovative lab pedagogies.

Abstract

Student learning in undergraduate physics laboratory courses has garnered increased attention within the PER community. Considerable work has been done to develop curricular materials and pedagogical techniques designed to enhance student learning within laboratory learning environments. Examples of these transformation efforts include the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE), Modeling Instruction, and integrated lab/lecture environments (e.g., studio physics). In addition to improving students' understanding of the physics content, lab courses often have an implicit or explicit goal of increasing students' understanding and appreciation of the nature of experimental physics. We examine students' responses to a laboratory-focused epistemological assessment -- the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) -- to explore whether courses using transformed curricula or pedagogy show more expert-like student epistemologies relative to courses using traditional guided labs, as well as how this trend varies based on student major or gender. Data for this study are drawn from an existing data set of responses to the E-CLASS from multiple courses and institutions.