2015 BFY II Abstract Detail Page

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Abstract Title: Correlating students' beliefs about experimental physics with laboratory course success
Abstract: Student learning in instructional physics labs is a growing area of research that includes studies exploring students' beliefs and expectations about experimental physics.  To directly probe students' epistemologies about experimental physics and support broader lab transformation efforts both at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and nationally, we developed the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS).  Previous work focused on establishing the accuracy and clarity of the instrument through student interviews and preliminary testing.  Ongoing validation efforts include establishing the extent to which student epistemologies as measured by E-CLASS align with other measures of student learning outcomes (e.g., course grades).  Here, we report on the correlations between final course grades and E-CLASS scores from two semesters of introductory and upper-division lab courses at CU and discuss implications of our findings for the validity of the E-CLASS instrument.
Abstract Type: Poster

Author/Organizer Information

Primary Contact: Bethany Wilcox
University of Colorado Boulder
Co-Author(s)
and Co-Presenter(s)
Dimitri Dounas-Frazer, University of Colorado Boulder
Heather Lewandowski, University of Colorado Boulder

Presentation Documents

Contributed Poster: Download the Contributed Poster