Changing student attitudes about science and their confidence in understanding real-world connections Annia Fayon Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Why study student attitudes about science?

CLASS survey (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey; developed to evaluate student attitudes in physics asks questions regarding students’ perception of science and problem solving

This study: Students from three introductory science courses were surveyed using CLASS instrument: GEO1001: Large lecture format, laboratory content is independent from lecture content KK - day lecture, 3 times/week AF - Tuesday night lecture PSTL1171: Smaller class, learning community style; lecture and laboratory content integrated

Sample questions modified from CLASS: Personal interest: I study earth science to learn knowledge that will be useful in my life outside of school Real world connection: Learning earth science changes my ideas about how the world works Problem solving confidence: Nearly everyone is capable of understanding earth science if they work at it. Conceptual understanding: A significant problem in learning earth science is being able to memorize all of the information I need to know

PSTL Pre and Post CLASS Results

GEO KK Pre and Post CLASS Results

GEO AF Pre and Post CLASS Results

Some Observations: PSTL students reported a higher pre-class confidence in physical sciences than GEO1001-KK students, in particular a connection to real world problems; PSTL students reported positive shifts in all aspects surveyed, responding similarly to the GEO1001-KK cohort; GEO1001-AF reported higher pre-class confidence than the other two cohorts, but reported unfavorable shifts in all categories except conceptual and applied conceptual understanding

Introductory physical geology course demographics University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Fall 2007

What contributed to variations in CLASS data? When comparing pre-post CLASS survey data from the three courses, some questions emerge: 1. Does course content affect student confidence in physical science? 2. How do students view ‘problem solving’? 3. Which students benefit more by integration of lecture and laboratory content?

Research plan to address some preliminary results: Compare similar populations from all classes to assess confidence as a function of pedagogy Focus groups for longitudinal studies to address which pedagogy is: a. more effective in preparing students to think critically, and b. more effective in terms of content retention over the long term

ey.html login saess password earth Ben Kennedy is now the person in charge of this project; you can contacthim at if you have any questions.