Swiss MINT longitudinal Study

Director Dr. Ralph Schumacher

In 2011, the ambitious goal of establishing a field-study on the effects of early physics education on later science learning was realized with the help of a start-up grant from the Jacobs Foundation. Elementary school teachers were trained in implementing four well-established teaching units on physics, among them on the topics «floating and sinking» and «air and atmospheric pressure». When entering secondary school or Gymnasium with newly composed classrooms, the intervention students can be compared to their classmates who had not undergone the early physics units. As of summer 2021, about 800 elementary school classes in German speaking Switzerland have undergone the instruction. In four dissertations and several studies run by postdocs, effects on scientific reasoning, use of scientific language, advanced physics knowledge and proportional reasoning have been investigated. Within the next time, we can come up with solid insights about domain-specific and domain-general benefits of early physics education.

More information about the Swiss MINT Study (in German)

Publications

Peteranderl, S., Edelsbrunner, P., & Deiglmayr, A. (2021). Evidenzbasiertes Argumentieren bei multivariablen Kausalzusammenhängen mit Interaktionen in der fünften und sechsten Schulstufe. Unterrichtswissenschaft. doi.org/10.1007/s42010-021-00097-9.

Peteranderl, S., & Edelsbrunner, P. (2020). The Predictive Strength of the Understanding of Inconclusiveness and Confounding for Later Mastery of the Control-of-Variables Strategy. Frontiers in Psychology. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.531565.

Schalk, L., Deiglmayr, A., Edelsbrunner, P. et al. (2020). Spezifische Effekte und Langzeiteffekte von grundlegendem Physikunterricht in der Primarschule [Specific effects and longterm effects of fundamental physics instruction in primary school]. Conference Paper at SGBF Kongress 2020, Biel/Switzerland.

Schalk, L., Edelsbrunner, P., Deiglmayr, A., Schumacher, R., & Stern, E. (2019). Improved application of the control-of-variables strategy as a collateral benefit of inquiry-based physics education in elementary school. Learning and Instruction, 59, 34-45. doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.09.00.

Edelsbrunner, P., Stern, E., Thurn, C. M. (2019). Beyond Cohen’s rule of thumb: When is an intervention effective from a statistical point of view? Conference paper at paEpsy Conference in Leipzig/Germany.

Thurn, C. M., Edelsbrunner, P., Schumacher, R. (2019). Can Early Physics Instruction Prepare for Future Learning About Magnetism? Conference Paper at paEpsy Conference in Leipzig/Germany.

Edelsbrunner, P. A., Schalk L., Schumacher, R., Stern E. (2018). Variable control and conceptual change: A large-scale quantitative study in elementary school. Learning and Individual Differences. Elsevier, 66, 38–56. doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2018.02.003.