We have investigated the temporal patterns of algebra ($N=606$) and calculus ($N=507$) introductory physics students practicing multiple basic physics topics several times throughout the semester using an online mastery homework application called science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fluency aimed at improving basic physics skills. For all skill practice categories, we observed an increase in measures of student accuracy, such as a decrease in the number of questions attempted to reach mastery, and a decrease in response time per question, resulting in an overall decrease in the total time spent on the assignments. The findings in this study show that there are several factors that impact a student’s performance and evolution on the mastery assignments throughout the semester. For example, using linear mixed modeling, we report that students with lower math preparation for the physics class start with lower accuracy and slower response times on the mastery assignments than students with higher math preparation. However, by the end of the semester, the less prepared students reach similar performance levels to their more prepared classmates on the mastery assignments. This suggests that STEM fluency is a useful tool for instructors to implement to refresh student’s basic math skills. Additionally, gender and procrastination habits impact the effectiveness and progression of the student’s response time and accuracy on the STEM fluency assignments throughout the semester. We find that women initially answer more questions in the same amount of time as men before reaching mastery. As the semester progresses and students practice the categories more, this performance gap diminishes between males and females. In addition, we find that students who procrastinate (those who wait until the final few hours to complete the assignments) are spending more time on the assignments despite answering a similar number of questions as compared to students who do not procrastinate. We also find that student mindset (growth vs fixed mindset) was not related to a student’s progress on the online mastery assignments. Finally, we find that STEM fluency practice improves performance beyond the effects of other components of instruction, such as lectures, group-work recitations, and homework assignments.

• Received 29 April 2022
• Revised 23 March 2023
• Accepted 15 June 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020111

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society