Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism

The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism (E&M) courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA). Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curricu...

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Main Authors: Matthew A. Kohlmyer, Marcos D. Caballero, Richard Catrambone, Ruth W. Chabay, Lin Ding, Mark P. Haugan, M. Jackson Marr, Bruce A. Sherwood, Michael F. Schatz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2009-10-01
Series:Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research
Online Access:http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.5.020105
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spelling doaj-6ebeab4430824bc7aee4f78f2d163ca32020-11-24T21:28:00ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research1554-91782009-10-0152Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetismMatthew A. KohlmyerMarcos D. CaballeroRichard CatramboneRuth W. ChabayLin DingMark P. HauganM. Jackson MarrBruce A. SherwoodMichael F. SchatzThe performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism (E&M) courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA). Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curriculum and the Matter & Interactions (M&I) curriculum. At each university, postinstruction BEMA test averages were significantly higher for the M&I curriculum than for the traditional curriculum. The differences in post-test averages cannot be explained by differences in variables such as preinstruction BEMA scores, grade point average, or SAT Reasoning Test (SAT) scores. BEMA performance on categories of items organized by subtopic was also compared at one of the universities; M&I averages were significantly higher in each topic. The results suggest that the M&I curriculum is more effective than the traditional curriculum at teaching E&M concepts to students, possibly because the learning progression in M&I reorganizes and augments the traditional sequence of topics, for example, by increasing early emphasis on the vector field concept and by emphasizing the effects of fields on matter at the microscopic level.http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.5.020105
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Matthew A. Kohlmyer
Marcos D. Caballero
Richard Catrambone
Ruth W. Chabay
Lin Ding
Mark P. Haugan
M. Jackson Marr
Bruce A. Sherwood
Michael F. Schatz
spellingShingle Matthew A. Kohlmyer
Marcos D. Caballero
Richard Catrambone
Ruth W. Chabay
Lin Ding
Mark P. Haugan
M. Jackson Marr
Bruce A. Sherwood
Michael F. Schatz
Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research
author_facet Matthew A. Kohlmyer
Marcos D. Caballero
Richard Catrambone
Ruth W. Chabay
Lin Ding
Mark P. Haugan
M. Jackson Marr
Bruce A. Sherwood
Michael F. Schatz
author_sort Matthew A. Kohlmyer
title Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
title_short Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
title_full Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
title_fullStr Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
title_full_unstemmed Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
title_sort tale of two curricula: the performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
publisher American Physical Society
series Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research
issn 1554-9178
publishDate 2009-10-01
description The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism (E&M) courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA). Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curriculum and the Matter & Interactions (M&I) curriculum. At each university, postinstruction BEMA test averages were significantly higher for the M&I curriculum than for the traditional curriculum. The differences in post-test averages cannot be explained by differences in variables such as preinstruction BEMA scores, grade point average, or SAT Reasoning Test (SAT) scores. BEMA performance on categories of items organized by subtopic was also compared at one of the universities; M&I averages were significantly higher in each topic. The results suggest that the M&I curriculum is more effective than the traditional curriculum at teaching E&M concepts to students, possibly because the learning progression in M&I reorganizes and augments the traditional sequence of topics, for example, by increasing early emphasis on the vector field concept and by emphasizing the effects of fields on matter at the microscopic level.
url http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.5.020105
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