Caduta dei gravi nell'aria: uno studio sperimentale sull'evoluzione dell'apprendimento attraverso PI

TL;DR

This study investigates how students learn about falling bodies in air through Peer Instruction (PI), addressing common research limitations and showing a steady improvement in understanding without disruptive peaks.

Contribution

The research introduces an interaction design in PI that overcomes typical assessment issues, demonstrating a linear learning progression in students' comprehension.

Findings

Linear increase in learning gain G over time

High accuracy in students' correct models

No disruptive peaks or interference observed

Abstract

Physics Education Research has shown that the active methodologies are better than traditional methodologies, the most popular are PODS and PI. However, there are three problems that blur their effectiveness: first, the pre and post-test do not allow to know what happens in the learning process; second, the answers that average - performance students give to questions of a test are influenced by the answers of the more advanced students; third, in many types of research on PI the students do not experiment. In the present work, it is exposed a research on the learning through PI with $42$ students over a small physical concept (Bodies falling in air), the interaction between the students was designed to correct the aforementioned problems. It was found a linear evolution of the gain $G$, with high concentration in the correct model and it was not observed peaks or interference.