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Re: [Phys-L] Indicators of quality teaching (Was:MOOC:EdxOffers Mechanics course by Prof.Walter Lewin)



I simply meant (a) -- statistical significance. The effects were rather
sizable.

Bruce


On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 7:55 PM, John Denker <jsd@av8n.com> wrote:

On 06/23/2013 03:38 PM, Bruce Sherwood wrote in part:

The gains are most definitely meaningful; different curricula lead to
significant differences in posttest scores:

Please explain what "meaningful" means.
a) Looking at the narrow context, a "meaningful" score might
be synonymous with statistical significance.
b) Looking at the slightly broader context, a "meaningful"
score might be an "indicator of quality teaching".
c) Something else???


Note that I am exceeeedingly skeptical of (b). If somebody
wants to argue in favor of (b), they need to actually make the
argument. There are those who take FCI gain as the axiomatic
definition of "quality teaching" ... but this approach is
never going to persuade me.

So, what is a "meaningful" gain, and what does it mean?

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