Collaborative Research: Physics Inventory of Quantitative Literacy

为了提高物理教学质量，必须有有效的、标准化的评价工具来测量学生的物理量化素养。为了满足这一需求，本项目将开发一种有效和可靠的多项选择测评工具来测量物理入门学生的数量素养。定量识字是一套相互关联的技能、态度和思维习惯。他们共同支持复杂地使用初等数学来描述和理解世界。复杂的量化素养是科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域工作的基础。虽然发展定量推理是许多科学入门课程的目标，特别是物理，但研究表明，学生经常难以使用数学推理来理解物理情况。然而，目前还不清楚初级物理教学是否能帮助学生克服这一困难。这个项目的目标是开发和实施一个工具，在物理入门课程中评估学生的定量推理能力是如何随着时间的推移而变化的。来自这种仪器的数据可以推动教学的改进，以提高学生概念化数学的能力，就像他们在物理中所做的那样。这一工具还可以评估这种教学变化的效果。此外，可以对生成的工具进行修改并将其输出到其他基于数学的学科。通过这种方式，它有可能提高对定量推理技能如何随着学生在大学课程中的进步而增长的理解。由于这些量化技能是学生在物理和其他STEM领域取得成功的核心，该项目可以提高学生在STEM学科中的留存率，并扩大我们在美国的STEM劳动力。有效的STEM劳动力需要具备量化素养，即使用表格或图形形式的数字数据对其含义做出适当结论的能力。发展这些技能是物理学入门课程的一个重要目标。然而，关于教学对学生物理量化素养(PQL)发展影响的研究很少。这项拟议的研究将通过开发量化素养物理学量表(PIQL)来填补这一空白，这是一种多项选择评估工具。项目小组将在多门课程的物理入门序列的背景下开发PIQL。然后，他们将开发和试点统计方法，在PQL的三个组成部分中衡量和评估学生的成长：关于比率和比例的推理，关于负量的推理，以及关于量之间的协变的推理。将使用各种心理测量学分析，以确保PIQL既有效又可靠。(一个有效的工具可以准确地测量学生的PQL。一种可靠的工具，在不同的学生群体中一致地测量PQL。)该项目的另一个主要目标是使用统计分析来开发一个评分模型，通过纳入学生错误答案中包含的丰富信息来量化增长，而不仅仅是掌握。这个项目将解决在物理入门课程中测量学生PQL的有效和可靠工具的迫切需要，并评估其成长。该项目将促进提高复杂的量化素养，将其作为物理课堂的一项教育成果。此外，结果将为评估其他STEM学科的量化扫盲提供一个模型。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

To improve physics teaching and learning, it is important to have validated and standardized assessment tools to measure students' quantitative literacy in physics. To meet this need, this project will develop a valid and reliable multiple-choice assessment instrument to measure introductory physics students' quantitative literacy. Quantitative literacy is a set of interconnected skills, attitudes, and habits of mind. Together, they support the sophisticated use of elementary mathematics to describe and understand the world. Sophisticated quantitative literacy is a foundation for work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Although development of quantitative reasoning is a goal of many introductory science courses, particularly physics, research suggests that students often have difficulty using mathematical reasoning to make sense of physical situations. However, it is not known if instruction in introductory-level physics helps students overcome this difficulty. The goal of this project is to develop and implement an instrument to assess how students' quantitative reasoning ability changes over time in an introductory physics course. Data from such an instrument could drive improvements in instruction to increase students' ability to conceptualize the mathematics that they do in physics. This instrument could also assess the efficacy of such instructional changes. In addition, the resulting instrument could be modified and exported to other math-based disciplines. In this way, it has the potential to improve understanding of how quantitative reasoning skills grow as students progress through their college curricula. Since these quantitative skills are core to students' success in physics and other STEM fields, this project could enhance student retention in STEM disciplines and broaden our STEM workforce in the United States.An effective STEM workforce needs to possess quantitative literacy, which is the ability use numerical data in tabular or graphical form to make appropriate conclusions about its meaning. Developing these skills is an important objective of introductory physics. However, few research studies have been published about the effect of instruction on students' development of physics quantitative literacy (PQL). The proposed research will fill this gap by developing the Physics Inventory of Quantitative Literacy (PIQL), a multiple-choice assessment instrument. The project team will develop the PIQL in the context of a multi-course introductory physics sequence. They will then develop and pilot statistical methods to measure and evaluate students' growth in three components of PQL: reasoning about ratios and proportions, reasoning about negative quantities, and reasoning about co-variation between quantities. Various psychometric analyses will be used to ensure that the PIQL is both valid and reliable. (A valid instrument accurately measures students' PQL. A reliable instrument measures PQL consistently across different student populations.) Another major goal of the project is to use statistical analyses to develop a scoring model that quantifies growth, not just mastery, by incorporating the rich information contained in students' incorrect answers. This project will address the critical need for a valid and reliable instrument to measure student PQL in the introductory physics curriculum, and to assess its growth. The project will facilitate the improvement of sophisticated quantitative literacy as an educational outcome in physics classes. Furthermore, the results will provide a model for assessing quantitative literacy in other STEM disciplines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.