Effectiveness of Ninth-Grade Physics in Maine: Conceptual Understanding

摘要

The Physics First movement—teaching a truephysics course to ninth-grade students—isgaining popularity in high schools. There areseveral different rhetorical arguments for and againstthis movement, and it is quite controversial in phys-ics education. However, there is no actual evidence toassess the success, or failure, of this substantial shiftin the science teaching sequence. We have under-taken a comparison study of physics classes taught inninth- and 12th-grade classes in Maine. Comparisonsof student understanding and gains with respect tomechanics concepts were made with excerpts fromwell-known multiple-choice surveys and individualstudent interviews. Results indicate that both popu-lations begin physics courses with similar contentknowledge and specific difficulties, but when learn-ing concepts, ninth-graders are more sensitive to theinstructional method used.