Correlations of Students’ Grades, Expectations, Epistemological Beliefs and Demographics in a Problem-Based Introductory Physics Course

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of student grades in introductory
physics courses utilizing problem-based learning (PBL) approach and traditional lecturing.
The study employed correlational/predictive methods to investigate and describe/explain
relationships of students’ physics grades with their expectations, attitudes,
epistemological beliefs about physics and physics learning, and demographic variables.
The subjects involved in this study were 264 freshmen engineering students (PBL, n =
100; traditional, n = 164) at Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) in Izmir, Turkey. All students
were surveyed at the beginning and at the end of the spring 2007 semester using the Maryland
Physics Expectations Survey (MPEX) to determine their expectations, attitudes,
and epistemological beliefs about physics and physics learning. Students’ physics learning
was measured via their end of semester physics grades. Correlational analyses indicated
significant relationships between variables of the study. Forward stepwise linear
regression analyses revealed the effort cluster and selected background variables (e.g.,
gender) as significant predictors of physics grades. Results suggest that further study is
needed to investigate predictors and correlates of students’ physics learning using qualitative
measures to support and more clearly interpret the numerical findings.