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Re: Effective HS Physics (was Statistics / more ...)



I think John has touched on the missing factor, desire or enthusiasm
(attitude). I think the tests would generally predict success when coupled
with a means of measuring "ganas."

(http://usuarios.iponet.es/casinada/06ganas.htm)

My experience is a good example of the failure of the Thurstone Aptitude test:

Q 28, L 98, All first students required to take (along with Subject A in 1955
UCSB). The dept. expected me to fail the first midterm and quit Physics --
didn't and managed to get the top grade on the final.

bc




John Clement wrote:

According to my references the Binet-Simon 1905 was credited as being the
first "modern" test designed to predict performance. 1916 Stanford-Binet,

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David Meltzer has shown that some math tests have some predictive value, but
again individual student effort and attitudes can have a big effect. VASS
is measuring attitude, while the Lawson test is measuring thinking skills.
My data seems to show that the Lawson test puts a very strong limit on
achieving gain on some of the conceptual tests. While a good attitude can
push the student to achieve the limit, it seems that they can not achieve
more within the parameters of my course.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX




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