written by Yuhfen Lin and David T. Brookes

One of our primary learning goals for our students is: we would like them to be able to learn physics on their own. Unfortunately few existing assessments can assess students' ability to learn without being taught. We are developing a new format of exam which challenges students to work together as a class to tackle a difficult problem that requires them to learn new physics. Rather than restrict their activities, we offer them a resource-rich environment of textbooks and internet access. Students are required to transfer their knowledge by answering a related question on a more standard "individual exam" two days later. In this paper we will discuss the format of the exams, background theory, and present evidence of how students are able to learn new physics on their own. Our results show that although students struggle at first, they do surprisingly well once they get used to the format.

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Published January 24, 2013
Last Modified June 27, 2013