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We examined how introductory physics students' attitudes and approaches toproblem solving compare to those of introductory astronomy students, using apreviously validated survey, the Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving(AAPS) survey. In addition, we compared the performance of the introductoryphysics and astronomy students on the factors which were identified in a factoranalysis in the original validation study. We found that introductory astronomystudents' overall average AAPS score was significantly more favorable than thatof introductory physics students (p < 0.01), and the effect size was large(Cohen's d = 0.81). We also found that introductory astronomy students' scoreswere more favorable in all clusters of questions except for one factorinvolving drawing diagrams and writing scratchwork while solving problems. Wealso found that introductory physics and astronomy students were equallycapable of solving two isomorphic problems posed to them, and that the majorityof introductory physics and introductory astronomy students reported that theproblem posed in the astronomy context was more interesting to them. Interviewssuggest that the context of astronomy in problem solving may be moreinteresting for students and could be one possible explanation for the morefavorable AAPS scores amongst introductory astronomy students compared tointroductory physics students. Instructors of introductory physics coursesshould heed these findings which indicate that it may be beneficial forinstructors of introductory physics courses to incorporate problems into theirinstruction which contain real-world contexts, which may serve to increasestudent interest-level, and which could help create more favorable attitudesand approaches towards problem solving.

Comparing introductory physics and astronomy students' attitudes and approaches to problem solving