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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Quantifying Understanding Hidden in Wrong Answers
National Science Foundation (NSF)
10/1/18 → 8/31/21
Project: Other project
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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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When Negative Is Not "less than Zero": Electric Charge as a Signed Quantity
Olsho, A., Brahmia, S. W., Smith, T. & Boudreaux, A., Apr 1 2021, In: Physics Teacher. 59, 4, p. 253-256 4 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Framework for the natures of negativity in introductory physics
Brahmia, S. W., Olsho, A., Smith, T. I. & Boudreaux, A., Jan 2020, In: Physical Review Physics Education Research. 16, 1, 010120.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access5 Scopus citations -
Preliminary Evidence on the Effect of an Open-Source Textbook in Second-Year Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Courses
Grinias, J. P. & Smith, T. I., Aug 11 2020, In: Journal of Chemical Education. 97, 8, p. 2347-2350 4 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
3 Scopus citations -
Quantitatively ranking incorrect responses to multiple-choice questions using item response theory
Smith, T. I., Louis, K. J., Ricci, B. J. & Bendjilali, N., Jun 2020, In: Physical Review Physics Education Research. 16, 1, 010107.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access2 Scopus citations -
Determining a hierarchy of correctness through student transitions on the FMCE
Louis, K. J., Ricci, B. J. & Smith, T. I., Jan 1 2018, In: Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings. 2018Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review
4 Scopus citations