The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is one of the research-based assessments established by the physics education research community to measure students' understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Former works have often recorded the notion of gendered mean FCI scores favoring male students notably in the North American (NA) based studies. Nevertheless,…

In physics education, a number of studies have developed assessments of teachers' knowledge of student understanding (KSU) of specific physics concepts with modified versions of existing concept inventories, in which teachers were asked to predict the popular incorrect answers from students. The results provide useful but indirect information to…

We aim to graphically analyze the depth of conceptual understanding behind the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) responses of students, focusing on three questions (questions 1, 15, and 28). In our study, we created and implemented subquestions to clarify and quantify the students' reasoning steps in reaching their responses to the original FCI…

In physics education research, instructors and researchers often use research-based assessments (RBAs) to assess students' skills and knowledge. In this paper, we support the development of a mechanics cognitive diagnostic to test and implement effective and equitable pedagogies for physics instruction. Adaptive assessments using cognitive…

This study investigates the performance of GPT-4, an advanced AI model developed by OpenAI, on the force concept inventory (FCI) to evaluate its accuracy, reasoning patterns, and the occurrence of false positives and false negatives. GPT-4 was tasked with answering the FCI questions across multiple sessions. Key findings include GPT-4's…

Enrollment in high school physics across the United States of America is notably lower than in other scientific disciplines. Given that physics serves as a prerequisite for admission into many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degree programs, the lack of completion of this course at the high school level can significantly…

In this study, we evaluate the validity of question 29 (Q.29) in the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), which requires an understanding of atmospheric pressure. At least in some Japanese physics classes, the rate of the correct answer to Q.29 is reduced between the pretest and post-test. To examine this deterioration of a student's response, we…

This study aims to reconstruct Grade 11 students' misconceptions about force through the Conceptual Change Model (CCM) making use of Predict, Discuss, Explain, Observe, Discuss, Explore, Explain (PDEODEE) tasks. This study was conducted using a mixedmethod approach. The participants in this study were 65 students (33 students in the experiment…

Concept inventories are widely used in physics education research, yet numerous studies show that concept inventories measure dramatically different learning gains in different demographic groups. Prior studies show that the performance gaps between demographic groups are already present in their preinstruction responses, suggesting that the…

Novel technology has been applied to improve students' learning abilities in different disciplines. The research in this field is still finding suitable methodologies, tools, and evaluation mechanisms to devise learning frameworks with high impact on students' performance. This article describes an instructional method to perform Newtonian physics…

Conceptual inventory surveys are routinely used in education research to identify student learning needs and assess instructional practices. Students might not fully engage with these instruments because of the low stakes attached to them. This paper explores tests that can be used to estimate the percentage of students in a population who might…

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is a popular multiple-choice instrument used to measure a student's conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Recently, a network analytic technique called module analysis has been used to identify responses to the FCI and other conceptual instruments that are preferentially selected together by students;…

Examination of my students' individual gains on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) over the course of several semesters led to the realization that student pretest knowledge on certain key questions appeared to be correlated to enhanced gain during the class. Acting under the hypothesis that early intervention aimed at helping the class perform…

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…

This work is the fourth of a series of papers applying multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) to widely used physics conceptual assessments. This study applies MIRT analysis using both exploratory and confirmatory methods to the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA) to explore the assessment's structure and to determine a…