The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction

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written by Karen Cummings and Michael Murphy

This preliminary study examines the impact of conceptual writing assignments on student understanding of two physics concepts. Writing assignments covered the concepts of Newton's Third Law and the impulse-momentum relationship and were given to students in both high school and college level introductory physics classes. The students in these classes along with students in classes taught in an identical fashion by the same instructors without the addition of writing assignments were tested on their conceptual understanding of the two content areas. The results of this initial study indicate that the efficacy of this approach varied with topic. This study further indicates that students' benefit from the writing assignments was independent of their writing ability.

Physics Education Research Conference 2006
Part of the PER Conference series
Syracuse, New York: July 26-27, 2006
Volume 883, Pages 61-64

download 143kb .pdf
Published: January 30, 2007

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Classical Mechanics - Newton's Third Law Education Foundations - Cognition Education Practices - Pedagogy	- Lower Undergraduate - High School	- Reference Material = Research study

Intended Users	Formats	Ratings
- Researchers - Educators	- application/pdf - non-digital	Currently 0.0/5 Want to rate this material? Login here!

Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2508691
Access Rights:: Available for purchase
Restriction:: © 2006 American Institute of Physics
DOI:: 10.1063/1.2508691
PACSs:: 01.40.Fk; 01.40.gb; 01.40.ek
Keywords:: PERC 2006, cognition, conceptual understanding, conceptual writing, teaching methods
Record Creator:: Metadata instance created June 4, 2007 by Shawn Weatherford
Record Updated:: July 16, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: January 30, 2007
Other Collections:: The PER-Central

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<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=5243">Cummings, Karen, and Michael Murphy. "The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, July 26-27, 2006.</a>

AIP Format

K. Cummings and M. Murphy, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, 2006, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5243&DocID=2102).

AJP/PRST-PER

K. Cummings and M. Murphy, The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, 2006, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5243&DocID=2102>.

APA Format

Cummings, K., & Murphy, M. (2006, July 26-27). The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York. Retrieved April 30, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5243&DocID=2102

Chicago Format

Cummings, Karen, and Michael Murphy. "The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, July 26-27, 2006. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5243&DocID=2102 (accessed 30 April 2024).

MLA Format

Cummings, Karen, and Michael Murphy. "The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction." Physics Education Research Conference 2006. Syracuse, New York: 2006. 61-64 Vol. 883 of PER Conference. 30 Apr. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5243&DocID=2102>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Karen Cummings and Michael Murphy", Title = {The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2006}, Pages = {61-64}, Address = {Syracuse, New York}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {883}, Month = {July 26-27}, Year = {2006} }

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%A Karen Cummings %A Michael Murphy %T The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction %S PER Conference %V 883 %D July 26-27 2006 %P 61-64 %C Syracuse, New York %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5243&DocID=2102 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2006 %O July 26-27 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Cummings, Karen %A Murphy, Michael %D July 26-27 2006 %T The Effectiveness of Incorporating Conceptual Writing Assignments into Physics Instruction %B Physics Education Research Conference 2006 %C Syracuse, New York %V 883 %P 61-64 %S PER Conference %8 July 26-27 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5243&DocID=2102

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