SciFER Proposal 2001

First-year Student Experiences in Physics and Biology:

The 2001–2002 HSC Syllabus Changeover

Project team:   

Chris Stewart (team leader), Manju Sharma (School of Physics); Elizabeth May, Mary Peat, Rosanne Quinnell, Charlotte Taylor (School of Biological Sciences); Michael Prosser (ITL); Peter Logan (UTS, Department of Physics)

Rationale

Student approaches to learning vary from surface approaches to meaningful, deep learning practices (Biggs, 1979). Differences in approach may be related to students’ conceptions of the subject, perceptions of the learning environment, prior experiences studying the subject and performance on assessment (Crawford et al. 1998; Prosser et al. 1996). Investigating these issues provides insight into student learning processes, a powerful evaluation and feedback process for improving tertiary science teaching and learning.

We are in a unique position to investigate the effects of recent changes in the NSW HSC syllabus by examining differences in student learning from 2001 (the final intake of students who have undertaken the old HSC) to 2002 and beyond and to study how the transition from HSC to first year university affects student learning.

Research plan and methods

The research project is currently underway in the Schools of Physics and Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney, and the Department of Applied Physics at UTS. We have designed an extensive survey instrument, based principally on previous work of Biggs (1987), Prosser et al. (1996) and Crawford et al. (1998) as well as careful reading of the physics and biology HSC syllabi.

The instrument (consisting of pre- and post-test surveys) will allow us to explore the links between students’ attitudes, perspectives and approaches to study in their first year physics and biology units of study, to build a picture of the students’ experience of their chosen fields of study. The first survey was administered as a pre-test at the start of 2001 and the second survey, a post-test, will be administered at the end of the first semester in Biology and the start of the second semester in Physics.

A syllabus review of the magnitude undertaken for the new HSC is very infrequent. We have commenced our study in time to survey the final intake of students taught primarily under the old syllabus. Accordingly, in planning our research design we required a method of surveying to ensure a maximum participation rate. We chose to use a supervised (in-class), written-reply, paper-based survey rather than an internet-based electronic version. Electronic surveys, while attractive for both environmental and administrative reasons, typically result in a low participation rate. Given the immediacy of our research question into the HSC changes, we could not take such a risk with this study.

Preliminary results

A preliminary analysis of the 2001 pre-test survey data was performed for a small sample of physics students. We chose a range of statistical techniques (Crawford et al., 1998) to examine connections between students’ responses to different survey items and to search for groups of students with common sets of responses.

The analysis suggests the students fall into two groups with different experiences of their studies in physics prior to university. Students in one group tend to employ surface-level learning methods in their physics studies and report a fragmented view of physics, while students in the other group tend to have deep approaches to learning physics and a cohesive conception of physics. These early results suggest a link between students’ approaches to study and their conceptions of the subject being studied.

This initial analysis is greatly encouraging for our goal to examine links between the many facets of the student learning experience — students’ approach to learning, conceptions of the subject being learned, perceptions of their learning environment and success in assessment — in first year science subjects.

Plans for dissemination of findings

Preliminary results (as discussed above) have been presented at the UniServe Science National Workshop in April 2001 (Stewart et al., 2001a). In July 2001 Chris Stewart presented a paper on the preliminary results at the American Association of Physics Teachers Meeting in Rochester, New York (Stewart et al.,2001b).

With the project’s basis in teaching and learning research, we aim to publish the results in a refereed journal of teaching and learning research, such as the Journal of Science Education. The collaboration between the School of Physics, the School of Biological Sciences and the Department of Physics at UTS should provide many opportunities to communicate our findings to a wide range of audiences.

References

Biggs, J. (1979). Student approaches to learning and studying, Hawthorn, Victoria: Australian Council for Education Research.

Crawford, K., Gordon, S., Nicholas, J., Prosser, M. (1998). Qualitatively Different Experiences of Learning Mathematics at University. Learning and Instruction, 8, 455–468.

Prosser, M., Walker, P., and Millar, R. (1996). Differences in Students’ Perceptions of Learning Physics. Physics Education, 31, 43–48.

Stewart, C., Sharma, M., Peat, M., Taylor, C., May, E., Quinnell, R., Prosser, M., Logan, P. (2001a). The HSC Syllabus Changeover and First-year Student Experiences in Physics and Biology. Poster presented at Research and Development into University Science Teaching and Learning, UniServe Science Annual Workshop, University of Sydney, Sydney.

Stewart, C., Sharma, M., Peat, M., Taylor, C., May, E., Quinnell, R., Prosser, M., Logan, P. (2001b). An Investigation of First Year Physics Students’ Learning Experiences. Paper and poster presented at AAPT Summer Meeting, Rochester, NY, July 2001.