Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains
written by
Patrick B. Kohl , Charles Pearl, and H. Vincent Kuo
Conceptual surveys like the FCI and CSEM are common, and course reforms often have the goal of improving student gains on these surveys. There exist various approaches to improving said gains, and there is occasionally concern that such methods "teach to the test" excessively. To our knowledge, however, there has been little direct experimentation on whether teaching to the test, even intentionally, has the expected result. In this paper, we report on a simple two-semester experiment involving ~900 students where we tried two different approaches to improving CSEM gains in an introductory E&M class. In the first trial, we gave students many of the questions from the CSEM as Peer Instruction-style clicker questions in lecture. In the second, we redeveloped parts of our Studio physics curriculum to target CSEM concepts without replicating CSEM questions. Comparing the CSEM gains in the experimental sections to the previous year's sections, we find that the first trial resulted in significant (~0.20) shifts in normalized gains on the relevant questions, while the second trial resulted in minimal or no shifts.
Physics Education Research Conference 2010
Part of the PER Conference series Portland, Oregon: July 21-22, 2010 Volume 1289, Pages 193-196
ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles!
![]() <a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=10448">Kohl, P, C. Pearl, and V. Kuo. "Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010.</a>
![]() P. Kohl, C. Pearl, and V. Kuo, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10448&DocID=1907).
![]() P. Kohl, C. Pearl, and V. Kuo, Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10448&DocID=1907>.
![]() Kohl, P., Pearl, C., & Kuo, V. (2010, July 21-22). Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved May 2, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10448&DocID=1907
![]() Kohl, P, C. Pearl, and V. Kuo. "Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10448&DocID=1907 (accessed 2 May 2025).
![]() Kohl, Patrick B., Charles Pearl, and Vince Kuo. "Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains." Physics Education Research Conference 2010. Portland, Oregon: 2010. 193-196 Vol. 1289 of PER Conference. 2 May 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10448&DocID=1907>.
![]() @inproceedings{
Author = "Patrick B. Kohl and Charles Pearl and Vince Kuo",
Title = {Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains},
BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2010},
Pages = {193-196},
Address = {Portland, Oregon},
Series = {PER Conference},
Volume = {1289},
Month = {July 21-22},
Year = {2010}
}
![]() %A Patrick B. Kohl %A Charles Pearl %A Vince Kuo %T Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains %S PER Conference %V 1289 %D July 21-22 2010 %P 193-196 %C Portland, Oregon %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10448&DocID=1907 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %O July 21-22 %O application/pdf ![]() %0 Conference Proceedings %A Kohl, Patrick B. %A Pearl, Charles %A Kuo, Vince %D July 21-22 2010 %T Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains %B Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %C Portland, Oregon %V 1289 %P 193-196 %S PER Conference %8 July 21-22 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10448&DocID=1907 Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.
Citation Source Information
The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual. The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References. The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation. The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ. Direct and Indirect Approaches to Increasing Conceptual Survey Gains:Know of another related resource? Login to relate this resource to it. |
ContributeRelated MaterialsSimilar Materials |