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Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency
written by Pasi Nieminen, Antti Savinainen, and Jouni Viiri
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-FCI; this analysis is limited to the student population of one Finnish high school. The students took the R-FCI at the beginning and at the end of their first high school physics course. We found that students' (n=168) representational consistency (whether scientifically correct or not) varied considerably depending on the concept. On average, representational consistency and scientifically correct understanding increased during the instruction, although in the post-test only a few students performed consistently both in terms of representations and scientifically correct understanding. We also compared students' (n=87) results of the R-FCI and the FCI, and found that they correlated quite well.

Please note the published erratum when examining this article.
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Classical Mechanics
- Gravity
- Newton's First Law
- Newton's Second Law
- Newton's Third Law
Education Foundations
- Assessment
= Conceptual Assessment
= Instruments
- Student Characteristics
= Ability
- Lower Undergraduate
- Graduate/Professional
- Reference Material
= Research study
Intended Users Formats Ratings
- Researchers
- application/pdf
- text/html
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Mirror:
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevST…
Access Rights:
Free access
License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
Rights Holder:
American Physical Society
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.020109
PACSs:
01.40.-d
45.20.D-
Keywords:
Force Concept Inventory, Representational Variant of FCI
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created February 27, 2011 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
May 4, 2012 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
August 25, 2010
Other Collections:

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Record Link
AIP Format
P. Nieminen, A. Savinainen, and J. Viiri, , Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6 (2), 020109 (2010), WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10754&DocID=2203).
AJP/PRST-PER
P. Nieminen, A. Savinainen, and J. Viiri, Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6 (2), 020109 (2010), <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10754&DocID=2203>.
APA Format
Nieminen, P., Savinainen, A., & Viiri, J. (2010, August 25). Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency. Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res., 6(2), 020109. Retrieved December 5, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10754&DocID=2203
Chicago Format
Nieminen, P, A. Savinainen, and J. Viiri. "Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, no. 2, (August 25, 2010): 020109, https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10754&DocID=2203 (accessed 5 December 2024).
MLA Format
Nieminen, Pasi, Antti Savinainen, and Jouni Viiri. "Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6.2 (2010): 020109. 5 Dec. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10754&DocID=2203>.
BibTeX Export Format
@article{ Author = "Pasi Nieminen and Antti Savinainen and Jouni Viiri", Title = {Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.}, Volume = {6}, Number = {2}, Pages = {020109}, Month = {August}, Year = {2010} }
Refer Export Format

%A Pasi Nieminen %A Antti Savinainen %A Jouni Viiri %T Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 6 %N 2 %D August 25, 2010 %P 020109 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10754&DocID=2203 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Journal Article %A Nieminen, Pasi %A Savinainen, Antti %A Viiri, Jouni %D August 25, 2010 %T Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 6 %N 2 %P 020109 %8 August 25, 2010 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10754&DocID=2203


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Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students' representational consistency:

References Key Document Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (R-FCI)

The R-FCI is provided separately in a password protected file to help ensure its integrity.

To obtain the password, please send a request with your name, email, institution, and a link to a page at your institution that confirms you are an instructor.

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