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So let's say that I begin with the belief that my AP physics students would be better prepared for college if they had some experience reading their texts and figuring things out for themselves outside of class. That is a conjecture. And now I want to do some research to confirm or refute this. But I have some questions and concerns about how to do this.
I could randomly divide my students into two groups. That's about as far as I get without trouble. Because now I want one group to read on their own, the other not. But I am still the teacher, responsible for presenting the curriculum. Do I not teach the non-reading other group this material? I have to teach it to them if I plan on testing both groups. I can't test one group and not the other -- kids talk to each other, and so do their parents. I think I'd get a few emails about this.
Well, let's say I figure a way past this. For a few sections in the text, I find a way to get half of these students to work through it on their own, while I teach it to the other half. Now how do I test my original conjecture? It seems that I will have to follow their college careers, measure their success in learning science in college and then tease out the contribution of my experiment. I don't know how to do this.
I don't thing it would help to give the FCI/FMCE before and after to both groups. My conjecture was not about those tests. I don't know if there is research that shows that performance on those tests correlates with success at learning physics and engineering in college and beyond. I suppose their must be. Otherwise, it's just conjecture too.