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Effects of Belief Bias on Student Reasoning from Data Tables
written by Abigail M. Bogdan and Andrew F. Heckler
This study explores both students' ability to make valid inferences from data tables and the effect of students' prior beliefs on that ability. Over 300 introductory physics students participated in one of two experimental conditions. In both conditions, the data filling the tables was identical; however, in the first condition, the tables were presented within a familiar physical context, a method well known to elicit incorrect prior beliefs in many students. In the second, the tables were presented in a generic context. We found that, while most students were able to draw valid conclusion from simple, generic data sets, they were significantly more likely to draw invalid conclusions in the familiar physical context. Closer analysis revealed that, when provided with a physical context, students tended to look at the data less, relying in part on their prior knowledge to draw their conclusions. Interestingly, students in the physical context condition indicated a higher confidence in their responses, despite their lower accuracy.
Physics Education Research Conference 2013
Part of the PER Conference series
Portland, OR: July 17-18, 2013
Pages 73-76
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Education Foundations
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- Behavior
- Learning Theory
= Representations
- Problem Solving
= Representational Use
- Student Characteristics
= Affect
= Skills
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= Problem/Question
- Lower Undergraduate
- Reference Material
= Research study
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Mirror:
https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2013…
Access Rights:
Free access
License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the published article's author(s), title, proceedings citation, and DOI.
Rights Holder:
American Association of Physics Teachers
DOI:
10.1119/perc.2013.pr.006
PACS:
01.40.Fk
Keywords:
Data interpretation, PERC 2013, Scientific reasoning, Theory-evidence coordination
Record Cloner:
Metadata instance created January 29, 2014 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
January 30, 2014 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
December 16, 2013
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