• Open Access

Transforming a fourth year modern optics course using a deliberate practice framework

David J. Jones, Kirk W. Madison, and Carl E. Wieman
Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11, 020108 – Published 23 September 2015

Abstract

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Upper Division Physics Courses.] We present a study of active learning pedagogies in an upper-division physics course. This work was guided by the principle of deliberate practice for the development of expertise, and this principle was used in the design of the materials and the orchestration of the classroom activities of the students. We present our process for efficiently converting a traditional lecture course based on instructor notes into activities for such a course with active learning methods. Ninety percent of the same material was covered and scores on common exam problems showed a 15% improvement with an effect size greater than 1 after the transformation. We observe that the improvement and the associated effect size is sustained after handing off the materials to a second instructor. Because the improvement on exam questions was independent of specific problem topics and because the material tested was so mathematically advanced and broad (including linear algebra, Fourier transforms, partial differential equations, and vector calculus), we expect the transformation process could be applied to most upper-division physics courses having a similar mathematical base.

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  • Received 16 August 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.020108

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 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

Authors & Affiliations

David J. Jones* and Kirk W. Madison

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1 Canada

Carl E. Wieman

  • Department of Physics and Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

  • *djjones@physics.ubc.ca
  • cwieman@stanford.edu

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Vol. 11, Iss. 2 — July - December 2015

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