Numerous studies have been published about instruments intended to quantitatively measure students' epistemic beliefs about science; however, as this researcher would discover, developing an instrument to accurately measure epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge is not always as straightforward as the literature would make it seem. Given a lack…

We report on progress towards the development of an Action Concept Inventory (ACI), a test that measures student understanding of action principles in introductory mechanics and optics. The ACI also covers key concepts of many-paths quantum mechanics, from which classical action physics arises. We used a multistage iterative development cycle for…

Understanding students' prior beliefs in nuclear physics is a first step towards improving nuclear physics instruction. This paper describes the development of a diagnostic survey in nuclear physics covering the areas of radioactive decay, binding energy, properties of the nuclear force and nuclear reactions, that was administered to students at…

The grading of high school physics students as a function of conceptual versus nonconceptual performance is investigated. The nonconceptual means a routine substitution in equations or direct recall. Students scoring highest on one type of question are far from distinguished on another type of question. (YP)