Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Research Expertise:
Physics Education Research
I study how people think about and learn physics. My major work has focused on developing instructional strategies for advanced undergraduate thermal physics courses. My current research centers on how students use and reason about mathematics in both introductory and advanced physics courses, and the ways in which they synthesize various pieces of information to form a coherent understanding of a particular topic. I am particularly interested in using statistical analyses to measure how student understanding of a particular topic changes during a course.
Honors and Awards:
Invited Plenary Speaker at the Foundations and Frontiers of Physics Education Research Conference 2017
Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings Paper Award Finalist 2010
Member of:
American Association of Physics Teachers (www.aapt.org)
American Physical Society (www.aps.org)
Recent Academic Projects:
Measuring and representing student learning in introductory physics: A main goal of this project is to use statistical analyses to measure the relative “correctness” of various responses to common multiple-choice tests. These results may be used to show how students’ understanding of physics develops during a course, even if they do not choose the correct response.
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, doctorate, University of Maine
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Projects
- 3 Finished
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Collaborative Research: PIMS: Physics Inventory of Mathematical Sensemaking
10/1/18 → 5/31/20
Project: Other project
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Quantifying Understanding Hidden in Wrong Answers
National Science Foundation (NSF)
10/1/18 → 8/31/21
Project: Other project
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Online test administration results in students selecting more responses to multiple-choice-multiple-response items
Olsho, A., Smith, T. I., Eaton, P., Zimmerman, C., Boudreaux, A. & White Brahmia, S., Jan 2023, In: Physical Review Physics Education Research. 19, 1, 013101.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Analyzing Multiple-Choice-Multiple-Response Items Using Item Response Theory
Smith, T. I., Eaton, P., Brahmia, S. W., Olsho, A., Zimmerman, C. & Boudreaux, A., 2022, Physics Education Research Conference, 2022. Frank, B., Jones, D. & Ryan, Q. (eds.). American Association of Physics Teachers, p. 432-437 6 p. (Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
Open Access -
Assessing physics quantitative literacy in algebra-based physics: lessons learned
Zimmerman, C., Totah-Mccarty, A., Brahmia, S. W., Olsho, A., de Cock, M., Boudreaux, A., Smith, T. & Eaton, P., 2022, Physics Education Research Conference, 2022. Frank, B., Jones, D. & Ryan, Q. (eds.). American Association of Physics Teachers, p. 519-524 6 p. (Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
Open Access -
Characterizing covariational reasoning in physics modeling
Olsho, A., Zimmerman, C., Boudreaux, A., Smith, T. I., Eaton, P. & Brahmia, S. W., 2022, Physics Education Research Conference, 2022. Frank, B., Jones, D. & Ryan, Q. (eds.). American Association of Physics Teachers, p. 335-340 6 p. (Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
Open Access -
Motivations for using the item response theory nominal response model to rank responses to multiple-choice items
Smith, T. & Bendjilali, N., Jun 2022, In: Physical Review Physics Education Research. 18, 1, 010133.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access1 Scopus citations