In her 4/27/01 Physhare post "Re: FCI as a measure of understanding,"
Karen Cutler wrote:
"Are there only 25 questions that test the knowledge and
understanding of physics?"
Almost everyone knows that at least 27 questions are required to test
the knowledge and understanding of physics.
Seriously though, three points might be made:
1. Titles of posts, such as mine, often use a title originated by the
person who coined the title and initiated the thread. The advantage
of this convention is that it allows subscribes to follow a
discussion as it unfolds. The disadvantage is that discussions often
depart from the original theme such that the inherited title is
inappropriate. It might have been better if I had titled my post
"On-line FCI (was 'Re: FCI as a measure of student understanding.' "
2. I discuss the strengths and limitations of the FCI in my Mon, 23
Apr 2001 12:38:32 -0700 post to the above lists "Re: AP Students":
"the FCI/MD. . . (MD = Mechanics Diagnostic, the precursor to the
FCI) . . . . and Mechanics Baseline test scores should not, in my
opinion, be uncritically taken to measure the general effectiveness
or success of a course. They can, however, be taken to measure
effectiveness in the narrow sense of the attainment of minimal
competence in mechanics."
Here again it might have been better to have used the title "What
does the FCI Measure? (was 'Re: AP Students')"
3. There are 30 questions - not 25 - in the most recent 1995 version
of the FCI(1)
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. I. Halloun,I., R.R. Hake, E.P. Mosca, and D. Hestenes. 1995. Force
Concept Inventory (Revised, 1995) in ref. 2 and password
protected at <http://modeling.la.asu.edu/modeling.html>.
2. E. Mazur, "Peer Instruction: A User's Manual" (Prentice Hall,
1997). "Professionals" may obtain free copies of the book (a) from
Prentice Hall campus representatives, or (b) by downloading the Adobe
Acrobat portable document file at <http://galileo.harvard.edu/v>.