PERC 2011 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | A longitudinal study of the development of attitudes and beliefs towards Physics |
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| Abstract: | Student success in a Physics degree has been shown to depend on more than just performance in course assessment; important additional factors include student attitudes and beliefs about their subject. We have used an instrument (CLASS) that measures how student epistemologies evolve over the course of their undergraduate degrees. Our previous work has sampled a cross-section of students across the Physics undergraduate programme at Edinburgh in a given academic year, and found that student attitudes and beliefs remain essentially static. Here, we present fully longitudinal data collected over the past three years, where we track the evolution of attitudes and beliefs of one group of students. We find broadly similar results: attitudes and beliefs remain surprisingly consistent over time. This suggests that a 'cross-sectional' or 'pseudo-longitudinal' study (collecting snapshot data in one year) is a valid methodology, rather than necessarily having to wait several years to accumulate fully longitudinal data. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster |
Contributed Poster | |
| Contributed Poster: | Download the Contributed Poster |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Ross Galloway University of Edinburgh James Clerk Maxwell Building King's Buildings Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Kate Slaughter, University of Edinburgh Simon Bates, University of Edinburgh |
