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Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
written by Jing Han, Lei Bao, Li Chen, Tianfang Cai, Yuan Pi, Shaona Zhou, Yan Tu, and Kathleen M. Koenig
The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is a 30-question multiple-choice assessment that has been a building block for much of the physics education research done today. In practice, there are often concerns regarding the length of the test and possible test-retest effects. Since many studies in the literature use the mean score of the FCI as the primary variable, it would be useful then to have different shorter tests that can produce FCI-equivalent scores while providing the benefits of being quicker to administer and overcoming the test-retest effects. In this study, we divide the 1995 version of the FCI into two half-length tests; each contains a different subset of the original FCI questions. The two new tests are shorter, still cover the same set of concepts, and produce mean scores equivalent to those of the FCI. Using a large quantitative data set collected at a large midwestern university, we statistically compare the assessment features of the two half-length tests and the full-length FCI. The results show that the mean error of equivalent scores between any two of the three tests is within 3%. Scores from all tests are well correlated. Based on the analysis, it appears that the two half-length tests can be a viable option for score based assessment that need to administer tests quickly or need to measure short-term gains where using identical pre- and post-test questions is a concern.
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education Foundations
- Assessment
= Conceptual Assessment
= Instruments
- Research Design & Methodology
= Validity
- Lower Undergraduate
- Reference Material
= Research study
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Free access
License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
Rights Holder:
American Physical Society
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112
NIH:
RC1RR028402
NSF Numbers:
0633473
1044724
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created July 27, 2015 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
November 9, 2016 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
May 4, 2015
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AIP Format
J. Han, L. Bao, L. Chen, T. Cai, Y. Pi, S. Zhou, Y. Tu, and K. Koenig, , Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11 (1), 010112 (2015), WWW Document, (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112).
AJP/PRST-PER
J. Han, L. Bao, L. Chen, T. Cai, Y. Pi, S. Zhou, Y. Tu, and K. Koenig, Dividing the Force Concept Inventory into two equivalent half-length tests, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11 (1), 010112 (2015), <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112>.
APA Format
Han, J., Bao, L., Chen, L., Cai, T., Pi, Y., Zhou, S., Tu, Y., & Koenig, K. (2015, May 4). Dividing the Force Concept Inventory into two equivalent half-length tests. Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res., 11(1), 010112. Retrieved November 12, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112
Chicago Format
Han, J, L. Bao, L. Chen, T. Cai, Y. Pi, S. Zhou, Y. Tu, and K. Koenig. "Dividing the Force Concept Inventory into two equivalent half-length tests." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11, no. 1, (May 4, 2015): 010112, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112 (accessed 12 November 2024).
MLA Format
Han, Jing, Lei Bao, Li Chen, Tianfang Cai, Yuan Pi, Shaona Zhou, Yan Tu, and Kathleen Koenig. "Dividing the Force Concept Inventory into two equivalent half-length tests." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11.1 (2015): 010112. 12 Nov. 2024 <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112>.
BibTeX Export Format
@article{ Author = "Jing Han and Lei Bao and Li Chen and Tianfang Cai and Yuan Pi and Shaona Zhou and Yan Tu and Kathleen Koenig", Title = {Dividing the Force Concept Inventory into two equivalent half-length tests}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.}, Volume = {11}, Number = {1}, Pages = {010112}, Month = {May}, Year = {2015} }
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%A Jing Han %A Lei Bao %A Li Chen %A Tianfang Cai %A Yuan Pi %A Shaona Zhou %A Yan Tu %A Kathleen Koenig %T Dividing the Force Concept Inventory into two equivalent half-length tests %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 11 %N 1 %D May 4, 2015 %P 010112 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Journal Article %A Han, Jing %A Bao, Lei %A Chen, Li %A Cai, Tianfang %A Pi, Yuan %A Zhou, Shaona %A Tu, Yan %A Koenig, Kathleen %D May 4, 2015 %T Dividing the Force Concept Inventory into two equivalent half-length tests %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 11 %N 1 %P 010112 %8 May 4, 2015 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010112


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