The Impact of Targeting Scientific Reasoning on Student Attitudes about Experimental Physics

Many course interventions in physics explicitly aim to improve student learning and implicitly aim to improve student attitudes toward physics. In this paper we describe an introductory physics lab course aimed to give students more authentic experiences conducting physics experiments. To evaluate student attitudes toward experimental physics, we analyzed and compared student responses to the Colorado Learning and Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) in the intervention course and in a more traditional one-semester physics lab course. While there were significant negative shifts in attitudes in the traditional course, we found no negative shift in the transformed course. We attribute this difference to deliberately supporting learning goals that focus on understanding the process of science through reflection, iteration, and improvement. We discuss possible reasons for the lack of evidence of significant