Re: DIAGNOSTIC/REMEDIAL TESTS IN INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS

[bill rachinger <bill.rachinger@SCI.MONASH.EDU.AU>]

Chris
Student and teacher comments were generally positive, although some students
considered the tests an imposition on their time !  The sample size was very
small so that little can be said about anecdotal evidence and I couldn't hazard
a guess about validation.
This exercise of attempting to write tests at Introductory High School level
was triggered by the popularity with Freshman students here at Monash of some
Diagnostic Tests in Electricity and Magnetism  which I wrote a million years
ago (in the early 70's actually).  These were at  "Halliday and Resnick level",
were exclusively multiple choice and were published by the local Branch of
JohnWiley and Sons ("Electricity and Magnetism Diagnostic Tests" by
W.A.Rachinger 1973 John Wiley & Sons Australasia Pty Ltd Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number 72-4096).  Again with this being a "sideline" no validation
exercises were carried out so that there were only student comments, but I
guess that the best measure of popularity was that after the book went out of
print there was a heavy rate of borrowing from the University Library --and a
not inconsiderable number of copies stolen!!
I'm sorry that I can't provide hard quantitative information.
I share your worries about "confronting students with their
misconceptions and then talking with them about it" particularly when large
University classes of 200or so are involved.  I guess that unearthing the
misconceptions is at least a worthwhile first step.
Bill

Chris Horton wrote:

> Bill R wrote:
>
> <<They were trialled at a local
>  high school and handed back to me with teacher and student comments, but
> this exercise was primarily to locate bugs, errors, unclear statements,etc.
> > >
>
> So what was your experience with them?  What anecdotal evidence of
> effectiveness?  What would you guess validation would show?
>
> I really like these worksheets, and I am sure I will pull them out and at
> least look at them before taking many of these topics on.  But OTOH I have
> not had much success with confronting students on paper with their
> misconceptions and then talking with them about it.
>
> Chris Horton