ERIC Number: EJ1386104
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2469-9896
Available Date: N/A
Evidence for a Normal Distribution of Normalized Gains
Coletta, Vincent P.
Physical Review Physics Education Research, v19 n1 Article 010111 Jan-Jun 2023
Recently Burkholder "et al." argued that class normalized gains over the entire population of courses is approximated by a Cauchy distribution, not by a normal distribution, and therefore should not be used to compare different classes because means and standard deviations cannot be calculated. They argued that multiple linear regression should be used instead. Burkholder "et al." provided very little data in support of their belief, but instead provided a theoretical argument with certain assumptions. We shall show that these assumptions are unreasonable. We also show explicitly how normalized gains from 114 classes taught by six different instructors are indeed normally distributed and how two other even larger samples are roughly normally distributed and are not remotely like a Cauchy distribution. The continued use of normalized gains by physics instructors is therefore justified.
Descriptors: Physics, Science Instruction, Scientific Concepts, Concept Formation, Regression (Statistics), Statistical Distributions, Achievement Gains, Science Achievement, College Students, High School Students, College Entrance Examinations, Scores, Foreign Countries
American Physical Society. One Physics Ellipse 4th Floor, College Park, MD 20740-3844. Tel: 301-209-3200; Fax: 301-209-0865; e-mail: assocpub@aps.org; Web site: https://journals.aps.org/prper/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United States; Europe
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: SAT (College Admission Test)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A