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Southern University and A&M College
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TEACHING PHYSICS
TEACHING PHYSICS
Irrespective of whether the answer was correct or
wrong, a low CRI value indicates guessing, which,
in turn, implies a lack of knowledge. If the CRI
is high (CRI of 35), then the respondent has a
high degree of confidence in his choice of the
laws and methods used to arrive at the answer. In
this situation (CRI of 35), if the student arrived
at the correct answer, it would indicate that the
high degree of certainty was justified. However,
if the answer was wrong, the high certainty would
indicate a misplaced confidence in his knowledge
of the subject matter. This misplaced certainty in
the applicability of certain laws and methods to a
specific question is an indicator of the existence
of misconceptions. The results of this study
demonstrate that the requested CRI, when used in
conjunction with the answer to a question, enables
us to differentiate between a lack of knowledge
and a misconception.
The method
I (1)
II (25)
III (6, 7)
IV (8, 9)
V (1012)
VI (1320)
VII (2123)
IX (2629)
X (3032)
XI (3336)
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TEACHING PHYSICS
Table 1. Decision matrix for an individual student and for a given question. Based on combinations of
correct or wrong answer and of low or high CRI.
Correct
answer
Wrong
answer
Table 2. Decision matrix for a group of students (a class) and for a given question. Based on
combinations of correct or wrong answer and of low or high average CRI.
Correct
answer
Wrong
answer
Illustrative application
The test was administered to three sections of
the Classical Mechanics (college freshman level)
course, enrolling a total of 106 students. The
students were given 45 minutes to complete the
test. All questions were multiple choice. Each
answer was assigned a mark of 1 if correct or 0
if wrong. The results were tabulated in such a
way that, for every student, each question had a
mark (0 or 1) and a corresponding CRI (from 0
296
TEACHING PHYSICS
Figure 1. Chart based on the results of 106 students who took the Pre-Spring 1997 Diagnostic Test.
The bar graph shows the values of the average CRI for correct and wrong answers, for each question.
Question numbers are shown on the horizontal axis.
Directions
Almost a guess
Not sure
Sure
Almost certain
Certain
297
TEACHING PHYSICS
Figure 2. Chart based on the results of 106 students who took the Pre-Spring 1997 Diagnostic Test.
The bar graph shows the values of the average CRI for correct and wrong answers, for each question.
Question numbers are shown on the horizontal axis.
TEACHING PHYSICS
required principles and laws, as indicated by the
low average CRI for wrong answers (WL), denotes
a lack of knowledge as opposed to the presence of
a misconception.
In cases where the average CRI was very close
to 2.5, the fraction of correct answers was utilized
to decide whether the average CRI value should
be considered high or low. The average CRI for
wrong answers for questions #3 and #28, around
2.5, were considered to be high due to the large
proportion of students who answered the questions
incorrectly. Indeed, this large proportion and the
average CRI around 2.5 suggest that significant
number of students might have given a high CRI
value for their wrong answers. Even though these
average CRI values are not much higher than 2.5,
prudence suggests that the instructor address these
topics as if the students had some misconceptions.
The average CRI values for wrong answers for
questions #5, 12, 23, 28 and 32 were also very
close to 2.5, but they were classified as low
average CRI because the number of students
selecting the correct answer was relatively high.
In this case, no special action is suggested for the
entire class, given the probably small number of
students with misconceptions.
A trend in the average CRI values for correct
answers provides additional evidence that the CRI
is a useful indicator of the certainty with which the
students answer questions. Each group contains
several questions that are designed to probe the
depth of students comprehension of that specific
topic. In figures 1 and 2, the average CRI for
correct answers in several groups is higher for
the first one or two questions and then decreases
as the questions increasingly probe the depth of
knowledge of the specific concepts or skills.
Conclusions
This work can be easily utilized by high school
teachers and college instructors to differentiate
misconceptions from a lack of knowledge. If
the answers and related CRI values indicate the
presence of misconceptions, then instructional
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the US Department of
Education, Title III-HBCU program and by the
Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research
(ONR, Grant #N00014-98-1-0748). The latter
funding is through the Timbuktu Academy.
Received 1 February 1999, in final form 1 April 1999
PII: S0031-9120(99)01436-7
References
[1] Hammer D 1996 More than misconceptions:
Multiple perspectives on student knowledge and
reasoning, and an appropriate role for education
research Am. J. Phys. 64 131625
[2] Webb J M 1994 The effects of feedback timing on
learning facts: the role of response confidence
Contemp. Educ. Psychol. 19 25165
[3] Halloun I A and Hestenes D 1985 The initial
knowledge state of college physics students
Am. J. Phys. 53 10438
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