Assessing introductory physics students’ learning strategies

Abstract

This study examines physics students' learning strategies in an introductory physics course, from two sciences programs at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto in Portugal, using Pintrich (2000) model of self-regulated learning (SRL). Physics II is an introductory course addressing fundamental principles of electricity, magnetism, optics, and thermodynamics. The research instrument used in this ongoing study involves two open-ended questions on learning strategies used by students to study the Physics II course and the percentage of the strategy's first rank choice. The three most listed students' learning strategies were: "to study course materials", "to solve problems" and "to do online formative tests" – for most students, these were ranked as the first choice. Some of the referred learning strategies by students belong to metacognitive knowledge. To a broader understanding of the qualitative results, a quantitative analysis must be performed and extended beyond undergraduate students from physics to postgraduate students enrolled in Master's degrees of physics, mathematics, and engineering. Moreover, for a deeper understanding of the various areas of SLR phases, the area examined must be expanded to analyse motivations, behaviour, and context, and not only the metacognition area.