• Open Access

Understanding the relationship between student attitudes and student learning

Michael J. Cahill, Mark A. McDaniel, Regina F. Frey, K. Mairin Hynes, Michelle Repice, Jiuqing Zhao, and Rebecca Trousil
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 14, 010107 – Published 6 February 2018

Abstract

Student attitudes, defined as the extent to which one holds expertlike beliefs about and approaches to physics, are a major research topic in physics education research. An implicit but rarely tested assumption underlying much of this research is that student attitudes play a significant part in student learning and performance. The current study directly tested this attitude-learning link by measuring the association between incoming attitudes (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey) and student learning during the semester after statistically controlling for the effects of prior knowledge [early-semester Force Concept Inventory (FCI) or Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA)]. This study spanned four different courses and included two complementary measures of student knowledge: late-semester concept inventory scores (FCI or BEMA) and exam averages. In three of the four courses, after controlling for prior knowledge, attitudes significantly predicted both late-semester concept inventory scores and exam averages, but in all cases these attitudes explained only a small amount of variance in concept-inventory and exam scores. Results indicate that after accounting for students’ incoming knowledge, attitudes may uniquely but modestly relate to how much students learn and how well they perform in the course.

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  • Received 6 July 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.010107

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics Education Research

Authors & Affiliations

Michael J. Cahill1,*, Mark A. McDaniel1,2, Regina F. Frey1,3,4, K. Mairin Hynes5, Michelle Repice3, Jiuqing Zhao1, and Rebecca Trousil6

  • 1Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning and Education, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
  • 2Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
  • 3The Teaching Center, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
  • 4Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
  • 5Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
  • 6Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Skidmore College, 815 N. Broadway, Saratoga Springs, New York 12866, USA

  • *Corresponding author. cahillmj@wustl.edu

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Vol. 14, Iss. 1 — January - June 2018

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