[LON-CAPA-cvs] cvs: modules /gerd/discussions/paper discussions.tex

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www		Mon Apr 25 11:43:10 2005 EDT

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    /modules/gerd/discussions/paper	discussions.tex 
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Index: modules/gerd/discussions/paper/discussions.tex
diff -u modules/gerd/discussions/paper/discussions.tex:1.15 modules/gerd/discussions/paper/discussions.tex:1.16
--- modules/gerd/discussions/paper/discussions.tex:1.15	Fri Apr 22 17:29:12 2005
+++ modules/gerd/discussions/paper/discussions.tex	Mon Apr 25 11:43:10 2005
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@
 At the same time, the results confirm that conceptual and physics-related discussions are positively correlated with success in the course, while solution-oriented discussion contributions are strongly negatively correlated. While cause and effect may be arguable, in the following 
 section~\ref{sec:question}, particular attention needs to be paid to question properties that elicit either the desirable or undesirable discussion behavioral patterns.
  
-\section{Results of Analysis by Question\label{sec:question}
+\section{Results of Analysis by Question\label{sec:question}}
 \subsection{Influence of Question Difficulty}
 The discussion characteristics of the problems were binned by their 
 difficulty index (equation~\ref{eqn:diffidx}) and the average percentage plotted in figure~\ref{fig:diff}. Only superclasses are
@@ -406,7 +406,7 @@
 \item discussions in the algebra-based course had a significantly higher emotional
 climate (6$\pm$1 versus 2$\pm$1)
 \item the algebra-based course had a higher prominence of ``chat'' (21$\pm$2\% versus 11$\pm$1\% (first semester) and 14$\pm$2\% (second semester))
-\item physics-related discussion were significantly higher in the calculus-based course (28$\pm$2\% (first semester) and 23$\pm$2\% (second semester) versus 17$\pm$2\%)
+\item physics-related discussion were significantly higher in the calculus-based course (28$\pm$2\% (first semester) and 23$\pm$2\% (second semester) versus 17$\pm$2\% in the algebra-based course.
 \item conceptual-discussions were significantly higher in the first semester of the calculus-based course (12$\pm$2\% versus 6$\pm$2\%), but this difference vanished in the second semester (7$\pm$1\%).
 \end{itemize}  
 Especially the last observation is discouraging, since as the student in the calculus-based course progressed further into their study of physics, the degree to which they were discussing concepts
@@ -430,12 +430,14 @@
 \begin{description}
 \item[Difficulty] Very easy problems can elicit a high level conceptual discussions,
 and so can problems of mid-range difficulty. As problems become more difficult, there is no significant gain in conceptual discussions.
-\item[Question Types] Different question types result in different association discussion patterns.
-\end{description}  
+\item[Question Types] Different question types result in different association discussion patterns. Discussions on a procedural level are more prominent for numerical problems than for any other problem type. Solution-oriented discussions are more prominent for multiple-choice style questions in an effort to short-circuit the conceptual reasoning.
+Discussions around single-response multiple choice questions and numerical questions have a significantly lower prominance of conceptual discussions than other question types.
+Ranking questions show very favorable discussion patterns, but their sample size has been too small to make definitive statements. 
+\end{description}
+Analyzing online discussions around problems has been found to provide valuable insights into student problem-solving strategies. 
 \begin{acknowledgments}
 Supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF-ITR 0085921 and NSF-CCLI-ASA 0243126. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this 
 publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
-\dots.
 \end{acknowledgments}
 
 \bibliography{discussions}% Produces the bibliography via BibTeX.