Collaborative Research: Physics Inventory of Quantitative Literacy

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

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.