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[Phys-l] High school FCI data



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Jing Han (2011) in his PhysLrnR post "High school FCI data" asked:

"Does anyone have high school students' FCI data ?"

High-school FCI [Hestenes et al. (1992) or Mechanics Diagnostic(MD) test [Halloun & Hestenes (1985a,b)] data are included (along with college and university data) in "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A six thousand- student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses" [Hake (1998a)] and "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory mechanics courses"[Hake (1998b)].

Fig. 3a. of Hake (1998a) is a plot of %<Gain> vs %<Pretest> score on the MD or (FCI) tests for 14 HIGH-SCHOOL courses enrolling a total of N = 1113 students. In this and subsequent figures, course codes, enrollments, and scores are tabulated and referenced in Hake (1998b).

Table 1a of Hake (1998b) contains "Pre/post test data for 14 HIGH-SCHOOL physics courses enrolling a total of N = 1113 students.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the
Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com>
<http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake>

"EDITOR: A person employed on a newspaper. . . [or journal]. . . , whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see to it that the chaff is printed.
Elbert Hubbard <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbert_Hubbard>


"Education research deals with an extremely complex system. At present, neither the educational phenomenology growing out of observations of student behavior nor the cognitive science growing out of observations of individual responses in highly controlled (and sometimes contrived) experiments has led to a single consistent theoretical framework. Indeed, it is sometimes hard to know what to infer from some particular detailed experimental results. Yet those of us in physics know well that advancement in science is a continual dance between the partners of theory and experiment, first one leading, then the other. It is not sufficient to collect data into a 'wizard's book' of everything that happens. That's not science. Neither is it science to spout high-blown theories untainted by 'reality checks.' SCIENCE MUST BUILD A CLEAR AND COHERENT PICTURE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME AS IT CONTINUALLY CONFIRMS AND CALIBRATES THAT PICTURE AGAINST THE REAL WORLD." [My CAPS.]
Joe Redish (2003, p. 15)


REFERENCES [All URL's accessed on 22 March 2011; some shortened by <http://bit.ly/>.]
Hake, R.R. 1998a. "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A six thousand- student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66(1), 64-74 (1998); online at <http://bit.ly/d16ne6>.

Hake, R.R. 1998b. "Interactive- engagement methods in introductory mechanics courses" (1998), online at <http://bit.ly/aH2JQN>. Submitted on 6/19/98 to the "Physics Education Research Supplement to AJP" (PERS), but rejected by its ex-few-body-nuclear-theorist editor on the grounds that the very transparent, well-organized, and crystal-clear Physical-Review-type data tables were "impenetrable"! This universally ignored crucial companion paper to Hake (1998a) tabulates and references: average pre/post test scores, standard deviations, instructional methods, materials used, institutions, and instructors for each of the survey courses of Hake (1998a). In addition the paper includes: (a) case histories for the seven IE courses of Hake (1998a) whose effectiveness as gauged by pre-to-post test gains was close to those of T courses, (b) advice for implementing IE methods, and (c) suggestions for further research.

Han, J. 2011. "High school FCI data," PhysLrnR post of 21 Mar 2011 01:04:18-0400; online on the CLOSED! :-( PhysLrnR archives at <http://bit.ly/dUrKkn>. To access the archives of PhysLnR one needs to subscribe, but that takes only a few minutes by clicking on <http://bit.ly/beuikb> and then clicking on "Join or leave the list (or change settings)." If you're busy, then subscribe using the "NOMAIL" option under "Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may access the archives and/or post messages at any time, while receiving NO MAIL from the list!

Halloun, I. & D. Hestenes. 1985a. "The initial knowledge state of college physics students," Am. J. Phys. 53, 1043-1055 (1985); online at <http://bit.ly/b1488v>.

Halloun, I. & D. Hestenes. 1985b. "Common sense concepts about motion."Am. J. Phys. 53: 1056-1065; online at <http://bit.ly/b1488v>.

Halloun, I., R.R. Hake, E.P. Mosca, & D. Hestenes. 1995. "Force Concept Inventory (1995 Revision)," online (password protected) at <http://bit.ly/b1488v>, scroll down to "Evaluation Instruments." Currently available in 20 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, English, Finnish, French, French (Canadian), German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Malaysian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Slovak, Swedish, & Turkish.

Hestenes, D., M. Wells, & G. Swackhamer. 1992. "Force Concept Inventory," The Physics Teacher 30(3): 141-158; online as a 100 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/foWmEb > [but without the test itself]. For the 1995 revision see Halloun et al. (1995).

Redish, E.F. 2003 "Teaching Physics With the Physics Suite" (TPWPS), John Wiley, TPWPS is online at <http://www2.physics.umd.edu/~redish/Book/>. Note the crucial correction of Fig. 5.2 and its caption on page 100.