Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching
written by
Sarah P. Formica, Jessica L. Easley, and Mark C. Spraker
To determine whether teaching an introductory physics course with a traditional lecture style or with Just-in-Time teaching (a student-centered, interactive-engagement style) will help students to better understand Newtonian concepts, such as Newton's Third Law, 222 students in introductory physics courses taught by traditional lecture styles and Just-in-Time teaching at North Georgia College & State University over the span of five semesters were examined using the Force Concept Inventory as a pretest and a post-test. Overall, the gains favor the Just-in-Time teaching method with a 37.6%±2.0% gain compared to the 17.9%±2.5% seen in traditional lecture classes. When analyzing only those gains pertaining to the Newton's Third Law questions, the results again favor the Just-in-Time teaching method with a gain of 50.8%±4.1% while the traditional lecture classes only saw a gain of 6.6%±5.2%. We also employed a new method of analysis which was a BIT Coding method created to quickly identify students' understanding of Newton's Third Law questions. This study shows that students in courses that are taught using the Just-in-Time teaching strategy better understand Newton's Third Law after instruction than do students in traditional lecture courses.
<a href="https://www.compadre.org/introphys/items/detail.cfm?ID=10556">Formica, S, J. Easley, and M. Spraker. "Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, no. 2, (August 18, 2010): 020106.</a>
S. Formica, J. Easley, and M. Spraker, , Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6 (2), 020106 (2010), WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10556&DocID=2855).
S. Formica, J. Easley, and M. Spraker, Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6 (2), 020106 (2010), <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10556&DocID=2855>.
Formica, S., Easley, J., & Spraker, M. (2010, August 18). Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching. Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res., 6(2), 020106. Retrieved March 18, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10556&DocID=2855
Formica, S, J. Easley, and M. Spraker. "Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, no. 2, (August 18, 2010): 020106, https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10556&DocID=2855 (accessed 18 March 2025).
Formica, Sarah P., Jessica L. Easley, and Mark C. Spraker. "Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6.2 (2010): 020106. 18 Mar. 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10556&DocID=2855>.
@article{
Author = "Sarah P. Formica and Jessica L. Easley and Mark C. Spraker",
Title = {Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching},
Journal = {Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.},
Volume = {6},
Number = {2},
Pages = {020106},
Month = {August},
Year = {2010}
}
%A Sarah P. Formica %A Jessica L. Easley %A Mark C. Spraker %T Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 6 %N 2 %D August 18, 2010 %P 020106 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10556&DocID=2855 %O application/pdf
%0 Journal Article %A Formica, Sarah P. %A Easley, Jessica L. %A Spraker, Mark C. %D August 18, 2010 %T Transforming common-sense beliefs into Newtonian thinking through Just-In-Time Teaching %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 6 %N 2 %P 020106 %8 August 18, 2010 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10556&DocID=2855
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