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Re: Lecture/lab mix research results



From: brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>

This sounds like a wonderful endorsement of a teaching method.
I ask myself the basic question:
Are these results signicant at some level of confidence?

I fear I do not have quite enough data ( or perhaps I am being lazy...)

So, (with no insight into Hake g or TUG-K) are these results significant?

Good question since I didn't include that informtion in my note. I can
assure you that the results are, in fact, statistically significant at the
0.05 level. We've been looking at these courses very closely for several
years. We've done some pretty sneaky things to avoid "volunteer bias," etc.
and we'll be continuing to scrutinize the project as we scale it up to
larger section sizes. I am about 1/2 way through a paper describing the
course, the research methodologies (both qualitative--150 hours of field
notes plus interviews--and quantitative). I'll be submitting it to the
Journal of Physics Education Research that hopefully will be accompanying
an AJP subscription for a while.

Let me restate my previous offer. If anyone is interested in taking part in
the SCALE-UP project, let me know. Over the next three years we'll be
adapting, developing, and testing lots of different ways of getting
students in large enrollment sections to interact on a more meaningful
level. We'd be happy to share the materials as they are generated with both
large and small schools. If you want to collaborate as a piloting
university, we have funds to support travel back and forth between NCSU and
places reforming their own large enrollment sections.

Bob
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* Robert J. Beichner 919-515-7226 *
* Assistant Professor of Physics 919-515-2682 (fax) *
* North Carolina State University Beichner@NCSU.edu *
* Physics Box 8202 http://www2.ncsu.edu/ncsu *
* Raleigh, NC 27695-8202 /pams/physics/Physics_Ed *
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