Search results for "Concept inventory"
showing 9 items of 9 documents
A Study on Engineering Freshman Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics
2021
Force concept inventory is a multiple-choice questionnaire commonly used to assess students’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. We here show that a cluster analysis method can be used to study student answers to the force concept inventory to investigate their understanding of Newtonian mechanics and provide new insights into the use of the force concept inventory. We identi- fied groups of students characterized by similar correct answers as well as by non- correct answers to the questionnaire, whose analysis allowed us to highlight student misconceptions/non-normative conceptions. Such an analysis of student answers gave us insights into the relationships between the student…
Learning About Forces Using Multiple Representations
2017
We present two research-based interventions to measure upper secondary student learning of forces using multiple representations (MRs). The first intervention is the Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (R-FCI) – a multiple-choice test for evaluating students’ representational consistency in answering triplets of isomorphic items in the context of forces. The second intervention is an interaction diagram (ID) – a visual representation that helps students to identify forces resulting from interactions between two objects. Students’ representational consistency on the R-FCI pre-test correlated with their normalised learning gain on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) suggesti…
Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics Through Cluster Analysis of FCI Student Answers
2018
The Force Concept Inventory is a multiple-choice test and is one of the most popular and most analyzed concept inventories. It is used to investigate student understanding of Newtonian mechanics. A structured approach to data analysis can transform it in a “diagnostic” instrument that can validate inferences about student thinking. In this paper, we show how cluster analysis methods can be used to investigate patterns of student conceptual understanding and supply useful details about the relationships among student concepts and misconceptions. The answers given to the FCI questionnaire by a sample of freshman engineering have been analyzed. The analysis takes into account the decomposition…
Freshman Engineering’ Reasoning Strategies When Answering FCI Questions: A Case Study
2020
Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is a questionnaire commonly used to assess students’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian Mechanics. We show that Cluster Analysis methods can be used to study student answers to FCI by finding their reasoning strategies on Newtonian Mechanics. Our analysis is performed to data obtained by a sample of freshman engineering students just at the beginning of their first General Physics course. The analysis takes into account the decomposition of the force concept into the conceptual dimensions suggested by test authors and successive researches. We identified groups of students with similar answering strategies, characterised by correct answers, as well as by non…
The impact of the pre-instructional cognitive profile on learning gain and final exam of physics courses: a case study.
2006
The case study described in this paper investigates the relationship among some pre-instructional knowledge, the learning gain and the final physics performance of computing engineering students in the introductory physics course. The results of the entrance engineering test (EET) have been used as a measurement of reading comprehension, logic and mathematics skills and basic physics knowledge of a sample of 47 Computing Engineering freshmen at the University of Palermo (Italy). These data give a significant picture of the initial knowledge status of a student choosing engineering studies. The students' physics learning gain has been calculated using a standardized tool in mechanics: the fo…
Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students’ representational consistency
2010
This study investigates students' ability to interpret multiple representations consistently (i.e., representational consistency) in the context of the force concept. For this purpose we developed the Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (R-FCI), which makes use of nine items from the 1995 version of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). These original FCI items were redesigned using various representations (such as motion map, vectorial and graphical), yielding 27 multiple-choice items concerning four central concepts underpinning the force concept: Newton's first, second, and third laws, and gravitation. We provide some evidence for the validity and reliability of the R-FC…
Development of a Chemistry Concept Inventory for General Chemistry Students at Norwegian and Finnish Universities
2018
A Chemistry concept inventory has been developed for assessing students’ learning and identifying alternative conceptions that students may have in general chemistry. The inventory aims at functioning as a tool for adjusting teaching practices in chemistry and is mainly aimed at assessing students’ learning during general chemistry courses. The inventory was administered as a post-test in a general chemistry course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in spring 2015, and evaluated using different statistical tests, focusing both on item analysis and the test as a whole. The results from this analysis indicated that the concept inventory is a reliable and discriminati…
Evaluation of a Chemistry Concept Inventory for general chemistry students at Finnish university
2020
A chemistry concept inventory (Chemical Concept Inventory 3.0/CCI 3.0), previously developed for use
 in Norwegian universities, was tested and evaluated for use in a Finnish university setting. The test,
 designed to evaluate student knowledge and learning of chemistry concepts, was administered as both
 pre- and posttest in first year general chemistry courses at the University of Jyväskylä. The results were
 evaluated using different statistical tests, focusing both on individual item analysis and the entire test.
 Some individual questions were found to be not discriminating or reliable enough or too difficult, yet the
 results, as a whole, indicate that th…
Relations between representational consistency, conceptual understanding of the force concept, and scientific reasoning
2012
Previous physics education research has raised the question of “hidden variables” behind students’ success in learning certain concepts. In the context of the force concept, it has been suggested that students’ reasoning ability is one such variable. Strong positive correlations between students’ preinstruction scores for reasoning ability (measured by Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning) and their learning of forces [measured by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI)] have been reported in high school and university introductory courses. However, there is no published research concerning the relation between students’ ability to interpret multiple representations consistently (i.e.,…