Across the field of education research there has been an increased focus on the development, critique, and evaluation of statistical methods and data usage due to recently created, very large datasets and machine learning techniques. In physics education research (PER), this increased focus has recently been shown through the 2019 Physical Review…

While other fields such as statistics and education have examined various issues with quantitative work, few studies in physics education research (PER) have done so. We conducted a two-phase study to identify and to understand the extent of these issues in quantitative PER. During phase 1, we conducted a focus group of three experts in this area,…

The Kruger-Dunning effect was studied as it related to performance in chemistry courses based on student differences in academic background. Student major was chosen as the classification to look at the effect of students with different interests/specializations. Chemistry majors tended to predict lower performance than biology majors, while…

The understanding of what makes a question difficult is a crucial concern in assessment. To study the difficulty of test questions, we focus on the case of PISA, which assesses to what degree 15-year-old students have acquired knowledge and skills essential for full participation in society. Our research question is to identify PISA science item…

We measured the personality type of the students in a large introductory physics course of mostly life science students using the True Colors instrument. We found large correlations of personality type with performance on the precourse Force Concept Inventory (FCI), both term tests, the postcourse FCI, and the final examination. We also saw…

We present the Electricity and Magnetism Conceptual Assessment (EMCA), a new assessment aligned with second-semester introductory physics courses. Topics covered include electrostatics, electric fields, circuits, magnetism, and induction. We have two motives for writing a new assessment. First, we find other assessments such as the Brief…

We developed and validated the Conceptual Assessment of Natural Selection (CANS), a multiple-choice test designed to assess how well college students understand the central principles of natural selection. The expert panel that reviewed the CANS concluded its questions were relevant to natural selection and generally did a good job sampling the…

Geoscience education researchers have considerable need for criterion-referenced, easy-to-administer, easy-to-score, conceptual surveys for undergraduates taking introductory science survey courses in order for faculty to monitor the learning impacts of innovative teaching. In response, this study establishes the reliability and validity of a…

The aim of this study was to cross-culturally investigate the instructional efficacy of the Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM) with college students learning about "factors affecting solubility" focusing on students' conceptual understanding, attitudes and scientific habits of mind. Even though the CKCM is a decade old, there has…

Using a quantitative case study design, the "Acids-Bases Chemistry Achievement Test" ("ABCAT") was developed to evaluate the extent to which students in Malaysian secondary schools achieved the intended curriculum on acid-base concepts. Responses were obtained from 260 Form 5 (Grade 11) students from five schools to initially…

Physical and virtual experimentation are thought to have different affordances for supporting students' learning. Research investigating the use of physical and virtual experiments to support students' learning has identified a variety of, sometimes conflicting, outcomes. Unanswered questions remain about how physical and virtual experiments may…

Numerous studies have attributed gender difference in mathematics achievement to various sociocultural influences. Singapore is a country of higher gender equality as represented in the Global Gender Gap Index and Singaporean girls perform as well or higher than boys in international mathematics assessments. This study develops a conceptual model…

The plasma state is included in the unit on matter and its properties in the 9th grade Physics course secondary school curriculum prepared by the Ministry of National Education of Turkey. Any tools and equipment required by tests to be conducted in the scope of the Physics course curriculum are in general easily accessible. However, in cases in…

The educational objectives related to the plasma state of matter, which comprises more than 90% of our universe, are located in the "properties of substances" unit in the 9th grade high school physics course curriculum. If there are physical and technical limitations while performing an experiment, the use of different techniques is…

Does correctly answering a test question about a multiterm fact enhance memory for the entire fact? We explored that issue in 4 experiments. Subjects first studied Advanced Placement History or Biology facts. Half of those facts were then restudied, whereas the remainder were tested using "5 W" (i.e., "who, what, when, where",…