Developed by Jeffrey Marx and Karen Cummings
Purpose |
To gauge students’ problem-solving ability in the context of Newton’s Laws, energy, and momentum, in order to assess the impact of reforms on students’ ability to solve traditional textbook problems.
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Format | Pre/post, Short answer |
Duration | 45 min |
Focus | Problem solving (Newton's laws, momentum, energy) |
Level | Intro college |
Sample questions from the ATPSA:
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This is the third highest level of research validation, corresponding to at least 3 of the validation categories below.
Research Validation Summary
Based on Research Into:
- Student thinking
Studied Using:
- Student interviews
- Expert review
- Appropriate statistical analysis
Research Conducted:
- At multiple institutions
- By multiple research groups
- Peer-reviewed publication
The open-ended questions on the ATPSA are designed to look like problems the end of a textbook chapter, cover Newton’s Laws, momentum, and energy and have a range of difficulties for each concept area. The questions were tested with over 275 students at four universities. The difficulty of the items was analyzed, and it was found some should be revised to have the appropriate difficulty. Scores among different groups of students correlated well with other measures such as SAT scores and previous physics experience. Further, there are some questions that can be solved using alternative methods than those intended. The ATPSA is still undergoing development. The ATPSA has been test with over 275 students and the results published in two peer-reviewed papers.
References
- K. Cummings and J. Marx, Beta-Test Data on an Assessment of Textbook Problem Solving Ability: An Argument for Right/Wrong Grading?, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010.
- T. French and K. Cummings, Development of an Introductory Physics Problem-Solving Assessment Tool, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2001, Rochester, New York, 2001.
- J. Marx and K. Cummings, Development of a Survey Instrument to Gauge Students’ Problem-Solving Abilities, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010.
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Typical Results |
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Typical results from Cummings and Marx 2010: |
The latest version of the ATPSA, released in 2001, is version 1.