McGill Speaker Series

Attitudes about physics and how they impact and are impacted by instruction

Carl Wieman
Nobel Laureate

Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of British Columbia

Students beliefs about physics are very important in how they learn the subject and their desire to pursue a physics degree. We have developed and validated surveys that probe students beliefs about physics and chemistry and about how these subjects are learned. These surveys provide a measure of students beliefs on a novice-to-expert scale that can be used to investigate the impact of teaching or relationships between beliefs and other educational outcomes of interest. These surveys are being used in courses across North America, including more than 15,000 students in over 50 courses at the University of Colorado. We see how beliefs correlate with learning of content, choice of major, and interest, and how different teaching practices impact beliefs in positive and negative ways. We have also seen surprising results with regard to the beliefs students have when they enter the university, particularly in how their beliefs about chemistry and physics can differ.