Conclusions

• Many LMU students have weak scientific reasoning skills and/ or naive views about learning. These cognitive skills and epistemological views can significantly impact students' performance in class. (Okay, we haven't established causality, only correlations, but the cause & effect are plausible.)

• Even in classes that use interactive techniques, these students struggle to learn physics.

• Teaching techniques and content must be adjusted to meet the needs of our students. Since many students are still concrete operational, abstract concepts, such as forces and energy, need to be proceeded by concrete observations.

• We would greatly appreciate it if you would consider administering some of the surveys and sharing your results with us. (Email us if you would like the surveys and further information, jphillips@lmu.edu)

(This talk, and others related to this research, can be found at http://myweb.lmu.edu/jphillips/PER.)