Assessing students’ conceptual knowledge of electricity and magnetism (original) (raw)
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Surveying students' conceptual knowledge of electricity and magnetism
American Journal of …, 2001
The Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism ͑CSEM͒ was developed to assess students' knowledge about topics in electricity and magnetism. The survey is a 32-question, multiple-choice test that can be used as both a pretest and posttest. During four years of testing and refinement, the survey has been given in one form or another to more than 5000 introductory physics students at 30 different institutions. Typical pretest results are that students in calculus-based courses get 31% of the questions correct and student's in algebra/trigonometry-based courses average 25% correct. Posttest correct results only rise to 47% and 44%, respectively. From analysis of student responses, a number of student difficulties in electricity and magnetism are indicated.
Longitudinal study of student conceptual understanding in electricity and magnetism
Physical Review Special Topics-physics Education Research, 2009
We have investigated the long-term effect of student-centered instruction at the freshman level on juniors' performance on a conceptual survey of Electricity and Magnetism ͑E&M͒. We measured student performance on a research-based conceptual instrument-the Brief Electricity & Magnetism Assessment ͑BEMA͒-over a period of 8 semesters ͑2004-2007͒. Concurrently, we introduced the University of Washington's Tutorials in Introductory Physics as part of our standard freshman curriculum. Freshmen took the BEMA before and after this Tutorial-based introductory course, and juniors took it after completion of their traditional junior-level E&M I and E&M II courses. We find that, on average, individual BEMA scores do not change significantly after completion of the introductory course-neither from the freshman to the junior year, nor from upperdivision E&M I to E&M II. However, we find that juniors who had completed a non-Tutorial freshman course scored significantly lower on the ͑post-upper-division͒ BEMA than those who had completed the reformed freshman course-indicating a long-term positive impact of freshman Tutorials on conceptual understanding.
Assessment of pre-service physics teachers’ conceptual understanding in electricity and magnetism
Momentum: Physics Education Journal
This study focused on an assessment of pre-service physics teachers’ conceptual understanding of physics in the domain of electricity and magnetism concepts. The study employed a descriptive survey method of research. The study sample consisted of 100 pre-service physics teachers from five teacher education colleges during the academic year 2021/21. The study used preliminary data from a PhD dissertation that was gathered by administering a conceptual understanding test on electricity and magnetism, which contained 32 items adapted from standardized tests. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one sample t-tests, independent samples t-tests, and one-way ANOVA. The results of the one sample t-test showed that the conceptual understanding test scores for electricity and magnetism were considerably below 50 and 70 which are the national standard pass mark points and the baseline for certification of competency to the teaching profession, respectively. ANOVA analysis reve...
Sultan Qaboos University Journal for Science [SQUJS], 2021
This work is intended to analyze and compare the performance of two groups of students on the understanding of force and motion concepts using the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). The FCI test serves questions on basic Newtonian concepts where the answers inclyde the correct response and commonly misconceived alternatives. The FCI test was implemented twice as pre and post-tests for two introductory calculus-based physics courses offered at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman for students mainly from the Colleges of Sciences, Education and Agriculture and the students from the College of Enginerring in the Spring 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters. These courses cover the traditional first-year level kinematics and dynamics in translational and rotational motions based on the same syllabus and the same textbook. Hake's normalized gain, defined as the change in class averages divided by the maximum possible increase, was used to compare the students'performances. The normali...
Tale of two curricula: The performance of 2000 students in introductory electromagnetism
2009
The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism ͑E&M͒ courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment ͑BEMA͒. Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curriculum and the Matter & Interactions ͑M&I͒ curriculum. At each university, postinstruction BEMA test averages were significantly higher for the M&I curriculum than for the traditional curriculum. The differences in post-test averages cannot be explained by differences in variables such as preinstruction BEMA scores, grade point average, or SAT Reasoning Test ͑SAT͒ scores. BEMA performance on categories of items organized by subtopic was also compared at one of the universities; M&I averages were significantly higher in each topic. The results suggest that the M&I curriculum is more effective than the traditional curriculum at teaching E&M concepts to students, possibly because the learning progression in M&I reorganizes and augments the traditional sequence of topics, for example, by increasing early emphasis on the vector field concept and by emphasizing the effects of fields on matter at the microscopic level.
European Journal of Physics Education, 2011
In present paper, we propose a new diagnostic test to measure students' conceptual knowledge of principles of modern physics topics. Over few decades since born of physics education research (PER), many diagnostic instruments that measure students' conceptual understanding of various topics in physics, the earliest tests developed in PER are Force Concept Inventory (FCI, Newtonian concepts), Force & Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FCME), Electric Circuits Conceptual Evaluation (ECCE), and Test of Understanding Graphs-Kinematics (TUG-K). Although these tests were generated and tested on the fields, they were mainly interested on freshman physics courses. Maybe only diagnostic test developed above freshman was the one initially used by researchers to investigate college students' understanding of quantum physics concepts but unfortunately, its source or history is not known. The main purpose of this study is to declare of a new diagnostic test and reveal initial results of the diagnostic test of Test of Understanding on Concepts of Modern Physics (TUCO-MP).
A Tale of Two Curricula: The performance of two thousand students in introductory electromagnetism
2009
The performance of over 2000 students in introductory calculus-based electromagnetism (E&M) courses at four large research universities was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA). Two different curricula were used at these universities: a traditional E&M curriculum and the Matter & Interactions (M&I) curriculum. At each university, post-instruction BEMA test averages were significantly higher for the M&I curriculum than for the traditional curriculum. The differences in post-test averages cannot be explained by differences in variables such as pre-instruction BEMA scores, grade point average, or SAT scores. BEMA performance on categories of items organized by subtopic was also compared at one of the universities; M&I averages were significantly higher in each topic. The results suggest that the M&I curriculum is more effective than the traditional curriculum at teaching E&M concepts to students, possibly because the learning progression in M&I reorganizes and augments the traditional sequence of topics, for example, by increasing early emphasis on the vector field concept and by emphasizing the effects of fields on matter at the microscopic level.
As part of our efforts to systematically improve our junior-level Electricity & Magnetism I (Electro-and Magneto-Statics) course, we have developed a conceptual instrument, the CUE (Colorado Upper-division Electrostatics) diagnostic. Two central goals of this tool are: to assess impacts of transformed curricula, and to systematically identify and document student learning difficulties. We find persistent issues involving students' ability to conceptually approach and visualize E&M, to accurately communicate that understanding, and to appropriately identify and apply upper-level problem-solving strategies. Our work underlines the need for further research on the nature of student learning -and appropriate instructional interventions -at the upper division.