The Force Concept Inventory as a Measure of Students Conceptual Coherence

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is a multiple choice test designed to monitor students’ understanding of the conceptual domain of force and related kinematics (Hestenes et al. Physics Teacher 30:141–158 1992; Halloun et al., 1995, Online at http://modeling.asu.edu/R&E/Research.html). It has gained wide popularity among both researchers and physics instructors in the United States and elsewhere. The FCI has also been criticized, and its validity as a measure of the coherence of a student’s understanding of the force concept has been questioned. In this paper we provide a characterization of students’ conceptual coherence and a way to evaluate it using the FCI. We divide students’ conceptual coherence into three aspects: representational coherence (the ability to use multiple representations and move between them), contextual coherence (the ability to apply a concept across a variety of contexts), and conceptual framework coherence (the ability to fit related concepts together, i.e. to integrate and differentiate between them). Postinstruction FCI results and interview data from two Finnish high school groups (n=49 total) are discussed; the data provide evidence that the FCI can be used to evaluate students’ conceptual coherence—especially contextual coherence—of the force concept.     

美国力学概念测试卷对于中国学生的适切性研究

对我国大中学生样本进行FCI测试,经过拉希分析发现：（1）FCI具有良好的结构效度,可作为我国力学概念教学的评测工具;（2）FCI在我国的主要适用群体是高中生;（3）FCI的若干题目有待改进。     

Counterintuitive Dynamics Test

One way to fascinate, engage, arouse curiosity, motivate, and stimulate intellectual development in learning scientific concepts is to use counterintuitive questions. These questions make students aware of the inadequacies of their own thinking by exposing them to situations whose outcomes are inconsistent with what they would expect. In this study, a counterintuitive dynamics test (CIDT) is developed and administered to high school students along with the force concept inventory (FCI). After expert reviews, the initial version of the test consisting of 39 questions was administered to 87 students as a pilot study. After item analysis, a final version of 30 questions was developed; its internal consistency reliability coefficient was calculated as 0.826. The CIDT and FCI were administered to 229 students from 9 different high schools in Turkey. The results indicated that while in FCI students were mostly affected by everyday experiences and while in CIDT by carelessness and a superficial approach. Average scores for both tests were roughly equal and low. The results showed that the CIDT is a new test that measures another dimension of dynamic concepts and should be used along with the FCI.     

Misconceptions of Turkish Pre-Service Teachers about Force and Motion

The purpose of this study was to diagnose the misconceptions held by pre-service physics teachers about force and motion. The secondary aim of the study was to detect whether misconceptions vary according to gender, educational level, and culture. The study was conducted with 79 student-teachers attending to one of the largest faculties of education in Turkey. Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was used to diagnose student-teachers’ misconceptions. FCI is a conceptual test consisting of 29 multiple choice items. Each wrong choice for each question reflects a specific misconception about the force and motion concepts. Data from the study was analyzed by using frequencies, t-test, and ANOVA for making comparisons according to gender and years of education. Results of the study showed that student-teachers of physics hold very strong misconceptions about impetus and active force. No significant differences were found between male and female students’ scores on the concept test. The results also showed that misconceptions about force and motion decreased through the years of education. However, they did not disappear completely. Findings of the study are very similar to the other research findings conducted on the subject in other countries. Student-teachers’ conceptions about Newton’s Third Law, on the other hand, were significantly better than those observed in other research done in other countries such as the US and Finland.     

Structured Constructs Models Based on Change‐Point Analysis

This study proposes a structured constructs model (SCM) to examine measurement in the context of a multidimensional learning progression (LP). The LP is assumed to have features that go beyond a typical multidimentional IRT model, in that there are hypothesized to be certain cross‐dimensional linkages that correspond to requirements between the levels of the different dimensions. The new model builds on multidimensional item response theory models and change‐point analysis to add cut‐score and discontinuity parameters that embody these substantive requirements. This modeling strategy allows us to place the examinees in the appropriate LP level and simultaneously to model the hypothesized requirement relations. Results from a simulation study indicate that the proposed change‐point SCM recovers the generating parameters well. When the hypothesized requirement relations are ignored, the model fit tends to become worse, and the model parameters appear to be more biased. Moreover, the proposed model can be used to find validity evidence to support or disprove initial theoretical hypothesized links in the LP through empirical data. We illustrate the technique with data from an assessment system designed to measure student progress in a middle‐school statistics and modeling curriculum.     

高一学生力学概念理解调查研究

通过应用＂力的概念测试＂（FCI）对高一学生进行了测试和访谈,发现学生在运动学、牛顿第一定律、牛顿第二定律、牛顿第三定律、叠加原理和力的种类这六个维度的理解存在不少问题,绝大部分学生未能达到基本掌握牛顿力学概念的水平;对学生存在的主要问题进行了具体分析及教学反思,提出了以探究性教学为主要方式的概念教学建议。     

Developing an Initial Learning Progression for the Use of Evidence in Decision-Making Contexts

This paper outlines an initial learning progression for the use of evidence to support scientific arguments in the context of decision-making. Use of evidence is a central feature of knowledge evaluation and, therefore, of argumentation. The proposal is based on the literature on argumentation and use of evidence in decision-making contexts. The objective is to develop a construct map describing a trajectory of evidence use in a decision-making context. The levels in the initial learning progression are characterised by students’ performance in practice. The framework is applied to a multiple-case study in 10th grade (66 students), structured around a marine resource management task. Data included audio and video recordings, as well as students’ written artefacts. Five levels of complexity in student performance are described; on the lowest level, students are able to identify and extract information in response to a problem and recognise general features in a set of data; on the uppermost level, they are able to articulate arguments by synthesising evidence from multiple sources and evaluate options based on evidence and scientific content. The framework also shows potential for recognising students’ difficulties in identifying and integrating data and evidence in their justifications and in drawing from domain knowledge to interpret evidence. Implications for educational practice are discussed.     

Junior high school physics: Using a qualitative strategy for successful problem solving

Students at the junior high school (JHS) level often cannot use their knowledge of physics for explaining and predicting phenomena. We claim that this difficulty stems from the fact that explanations are multi‐step reasoning tasks, and students often lack the qualitative problem‐solving strategies needed to guide them. This article describes a new instructional approach for teaching mechanics at the JHS level that explicitly teaches such a strategy. The strategy involves easy to use visual representations and leads from characterizing the system in terms of interactions to the design of free‐body force diagrams. These diagrams are used for explaining and predicting phenomena based on Newton's laws. The findings show that 9th grade students who studied by the approach advanced significantly from pretests to post‐tests on items of the Force Concept Inventory—FCI and on other items examining specific basic and complex understanding performances. These items focused on the major learning goals of the program. In the post‐tests the JHS students performed on the FCI items better than advanced high‐school and college students. In addition, interviews conducted before, during, and after instruction indicated that the students had an improved ability to explain and predict phenomena using physics ideas and that they showed retention after 6 months. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1094–1115, 2010     

Teachers’ use of learning progression-based formative assessment to inform teachers’ instructional adjustment: a case study of two physics teachers’ instruction

ABSTRACT

To explore the affordances of learning progressions (LP) in support of teachers’ formal and informal formative assessment (FFA and IFA) practices, we conducted a case study with a fine-grain-sized energy LP. The study first theorises an LP-based formative assessment model, which proposes the use of LPs in clarifying learning objectives, eliciting and interpreting students’ understanding, and acting in instruction. Then, we examine multiple iterations of two high-school teachers’ lesson plans and their enactment of the lessons to identify the instructional adjustments teachers made as part of the LP-based FFA and IFA after professional training. We found that both teachers refined the learning objectives and activities and most of their adjustments promoted students’ learning progression; their adjustments have an interdependency between objectives and activities. Both made more adjustments in the IFA than in the FFA, but the alignment with the LP was higher in FFA than in IFA. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, both teachers perceived the LP as a content structure. However, in practice, both employed it as a reference to interpret students’ responses by comparing these responses against their own expectations. The teachers also reported collecting assessment information during teacher-student interactive activities and using this material to infer the level of students’ understanding in order to decide on the next instructional activities. Both teachers reported that the process of directly engaging with the LP formatively resulted in their having a much more nuanced sense of students’ understanding when they revisited and altered the sequence of the learning activities.     

理论力学动静法中刚体惯性力的另种加法

利用动力学中的质心运动定理、定轴转动微分方程和平面运动微分方程等知识来分别施加平移、定轴转动和平面运动刚体的惯性力,运用这种方法施加惯性力不但推导方便,便于学生理解与接受,而且更加明显地突出了其动力学实质,使学生能对惯性力的物理意义更加清楚。     

Investigating Greek Students' Ideas about Forces and Motion

Educational research has shown that high school and university students also follow the Aristotelian idea about motion; for example, a continuous action of a force is necessary to keep an object in motion. The survey presented in this article aims at a deeper investigation of secondary education students' ideas about the forces involved in objects moving under the sole influence of gravity. The main objectives are: (1) to investigate other ideas or difficulties, which intervene and determine students' mental models about motion and force, and (2) to reveal how the students in the sample are grouped according to their alternative conceptions. Our study has been mainly determined by the revision in Science Curriculum established in Greece three years ago. A survey has been administered to a total of 146 students (15–16 years old) attending six typical public high schools in Greece. The results presented show that the traditional instruction is pertinent while the approaches of the New Physics Curriculum have not been effectively expanded to the schools. The majority of the students exhibited the idea that the original force is continuously exerted to the ball during its motion. On the other hand, multivariate analysis has identified three discernible groups of students which have exhibited a persistent and rather consistent approach: (1) An extended group of students having the above misconception, (2) a second group of students which, generally, responded correctly to the tasks, and (3) a third group of students, which ignored the presence of the gravitational force and/or believe that the action-reaction forces are both exerted to the ball during its motion.     

Empirical validation of a modern genetics progression web for college biology students

ABSTRACT

Research in learning progressions (LPs) has been essential towards building understanding of how students’ ideas change over time. There has been little work, however, into how ideas between separate but related constructs within a multi-faceted LP relate. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the idea of progression webs to model connections within and between related constructs simultaneously, and to explain and demonstrate the efficacy of path analysis towards validating a hypothesised progression web for understanding of modern genetics. Specifically, we evaluate strength of evidence for a progression web based upon multiple related constructs within a multi-faceted LP describing undergraduate biology students’ understanding of genetics. We then utilise the progression web to generalise theory around how undergraduate students understand relationships between related genetics concepts, and how they use simpler concepts to scaffold those which are more complex.     

Cross‐time attitudes,concept formation,and achievement in college freshman physics

The relationships among science and engineering attitude, physics conceptual understanding, and physics achievement were explored for a population of college freshman engineering students over two semesters. Gender and SAT‐Quantitative measures were included as exogenous variables in a longitudinal path analysis. Attitude was theorized to predict achievement contemporaneously and at the next time point, while conceptual understanding was theorized to predict physics achievement contemporaneously and at the next time point. Each at one time was theorized to predict scores at the next time. A sample of 200 freshman engineering students participating in an integrated curriculum were assessed in September, December, and April (with a loss of 64 students) with the Force Concepts Inventory (FCI), Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT), and a locally developed attitude measure. The observed model indicated that the FCI predicted attitude at time 1 with no other paths between them, that FCI at time 1 predicted MBT at time 1 and time 2, FCI at time 2 predicted MBT at time 3, and MBT at time 1 predicted FCI at time 2. Gender and SAT‐Quantitative scores were predictive only of FCI and MBT at time 1. Results supported an interactive model of conceptual understanding and achievement, with attitude largely irrelevant to the process for this population. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 1112–1120, 2000     

Enhancing Force Concept Inventory diagnostics to identify dominant misconceptions in first-year engineering physics

This work presents the results of a study whose aim is to detect systematic errors about the concept of force among freshmen students. The researchers analysed the results of the Force Concept Inventory test, which was administered to two different groups of students. The results show that, although there were significant performance variations between the two groups, they, nonetheless, shared common incorrect answers that were consistently triggered by the same misconceptions. The analysis proposed in this paper could also be applied in other universities to reveal the students’ a priori mindset in Newtonian mechanics and serve as a guideline for developing effective computer simulations or other tools.     

Development of a Learning Progression for the Formation of the Solar System

This study describes the process of defining a hypothetical learning progression (LP) for astronomy around the big idea of Solar System formation. At the most sophisticated level, students can explain how the formation process led to the current Solar System by considering how the planets formed from the collapse of a rotating cloud of gas and dust. Development of this LP was conducted in 2 phases. First, we interviewed middle school, high school, and college students (N?=?44), asking them to describe properties of the current Solar System and to explain how the Solar System was formed. Second, we interviewed 6th-grade students (N?=?24) before and after a 15-week astronomy curriculum designed around the big idea. Our analysis provides evidence for potential levels of sophistication within the hypothetical LP, while also revealing common alternative conceptions or areas of limited understanding that could form barriers to progress if not addressed by instruction. For example, many students' understanding of Solar System phenomena was limited by either alternative ideas about gravity or limited application of momentum in their explanations. Few students approached a scientific-level explanation, but their responses revealed possible stepping stones that could be built upon with appropriate instruction.     

从函数图像绘制角度统一看四种内力图绘制

材料力学中内力图的绘制贯穿材料力学强度学习的整个过程,也是工程中结构分析重要的一环,因此,掌握好内力图的绘制,对于培养学生的工程分析能力至关重要。本文从数学函数图像绘制的角度,揭示了内力图绘制的本质,提出了四种内力图绘制的统一思想并小结了若干绘图技巧,以使学生能快速准确绘制内力图。     

试论企业文化力的作用

文章对企业文化力的精神导引力、资源整合力、战略决策力、认同凝聚力、社会扩张力、市场开发力、产品营销力和组织应变力进行了探索和分析，揭示了企业文化力对企业发展的巨大作用及其作功途径。     

Similarity of science textbooks: A content. Analysis

The investigator completed a content analysis of the astronomy portion of science texts at three grade levels (4th, 5th, and 6th) that were produced by five different publishers. The analysis used an operant paradigm and compared the responses expected of students who used one science text to those expected of students using other science texts. The response comparisons were made both within and across grade levels. Using similarity of the responses expected of students as a basis of comparison, elementary school science texts produced by different publishers had more in common across grade levels than within grade levels. Less than 50% of the responses expected of students at one grade level were common to other science texts at the same or different grade levels.