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Re: AP Students



Hi Dick-
Then you will agree that if a high mark on the physics AP (say a
5) is a good predictor of "some worthwhile trait after graduation" you
will eat your words?
If so, then this sounds like a doable research project.
Regards,
Jack

On Sat, 21 Apr 2001, Richard Hake wrote:

In his 4/21/01 Phys-L post "Re: AP Students," Jack Uretsky writes:

"I am still awaiting data supporting the view that a high mark on the
fci is a predictor of some worthwhile trait after graduation."

In turn, I am still awaiting data supporting the view that there is
any data whatsoever that can serve as a predictor of some worthwhile
trait after graduation.

Whether or not the FCI score is a predictor of some worthwhile trait
after graduation is, IMHO, totally irrelevant. The point is that if
graduates of high-school AP physics classes achieve relatively low
average normalized gains <g> on the FCI (1), then one may fairly
conclude that such classes do little to enhance students'
understanding of the basic concepts of Newtonian mechanics.


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>

REFERENCES
1. R.R. Hake, "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory
mechanics courses," on the Web at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/> and
submitted on 6/19/98 to the "Physics Education Research Supplement to
AJP"(PERS); Table Ia for high-school courses, AZ-AP, N = 33, <g> =
0.27.


--
Franz Kafka's novels and novella's are so Kafkaesque that one has to
wonder at the enormity of coincidence required to have produced a writer
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Greg Nagan from "The Metamorphosis" in
<The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>