A performance gap between the genders has been observed on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) almost since its introduction. Many studies have sought to characterize this gender gap, however, few have tested the consistency of the factor structure across the genders. This study fills in this gap by offering the first piece of evidence that the…

In this study, we investigated female and male students' sense of belonging and their academic performance measured by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and course grades in a calculus-based introductory physics course at a large public university in the United States. We find that compared to male students, female students' sense of belonging was…

Research-based assessments (RBAs) allow researchers and practitioners to compare student performance across different contexts and institutions. In recent years, research attention has focused on the student populations these RBAs were initially developed with because much of that research was done with "samples of convenience" that were…

Over the course of instruction, not only does most introductory physics students' content knowledge evolve but their attitudes and approaches to problem solving are also likely to evolve. This change may depend on many factors including the curricula and pedagogies used, the degree to which instruction actively engages students in the learning…

In this paper, the level of conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics among Afghan school and university students in Kabul, Afghanistan was investigated. This study employed a quantitative descriptive survey method where the Pashto version of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was given to a random sample of 216 students from two schools and…

This thesis explores impact of evidence-based active-engagement courses (EBAE) on student achievement and gender gap in introductory physics. The first study is about the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of the physics teaching assistants (TAs) at identifying introductory students' difficulties using the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and…