Introductory students’ attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving: major, achievement level and gender differences

Students’ attitudes and approaches to problem solving are claimed to be related to their ways they learn physics and to their success in solving physics problems. In this study, the Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS) survey was used to reveal Turkish introductory university students’...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Balta, Nuri, Asikainen, Mervi A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/172299
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/172299
https://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jotse.666
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Problem-based learning
Physics--Study and teaching
Problem solving
Physics education
Problem solving in physics
AAPS survey
Attitudes
Gender
Aprenentatge basat en problemes
Física -- Ensenyament universitari
Solució de problemes -- Ensenyament
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Ensenyament i aprenentatge::Metodologies docents::Aprenentatge basat en problemes i projectes
Descripción
Sumario:Students’ attitudes and approaches to problem solving are claimed to be related to their ways they learn physics and to their success in solving physics problems. In this study, the Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS) survey was used to reveal Turkish introductory university students’ attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving. The data were collected from 175 students, in the spring semester of 2015-2016 academic year, from an introductory physics course at a university in the Black See Region of Turkey. The analysis of the data was conducted by grouping the data by major, achievement level, and gender. They were no statistically significant differences between the averages of civil engineering and molecular biology majors, and between male and female students. However, we obtained a small sample correlation between students’ attitudes and exam grades that suggests high achievers’ attitudes and approaches to physics problems are more expert-like than the attitudes and approaches of low achievers. Implications for problem solving strategies and directions for further research are discussed