Beth Lindsey 
Department of Physics
Penn State Greater Allegheny

Title: Two avenues for improving student learning: conceptual understanding of potential energy 
and students' metacognitive calibration


Abstract: Physics Education Research presents many productive approaches 
for improving student learning in physics. Research and curriculum development 
targeting student conceptual understanding have an important history. Recently, 
investigations into students' metacognitive skills have become more prominent as 
well. In this talk, I will describe two investigations currently in progress at 
Penn State Greater Allegheny. The first deals with student understanding of potential 
energy in the context of universal gravitation and electrostatics. Potential energy 
is a conceptually rich topic presenting many difficulties for students. I will 
describe the ways in which the research on student understanding has informed the 
development of curriculum and discuss the connections between student understanding 
of potential energy in mechanics and their subsequent performance in electricity 
and magnetism. I will present data on student understanding of potential energy 
from written questions and from one-on-one student interviews. A second area of 
active research is in students' metacognitive calibration. We are measuring the 
extent to which the course content students believe they know matches their actual 
exam performance. I will present evidence suggesting that calibration levels differ 
depending on question type. Both of these investigations have as their ultimate 
goal the improvement of student learning of introductory physics.