The concept of assigning partial credit on multiple-choice test items is considered for items from ACS Exams. Because the items on these exams, particularly the quantitative items, use common student errors to define incorrect answers, it is possible to assign partial credits to some of these incorrect responses. To do so, however, it becomes vital that instructors reach general agreement as to the level of partial credit. Using workshops with instructors, ACS Exams has identified reasons why partial credit could be assigned in an exam set of 70 test items. With partial-credit assignments thus established, polytomous scoring is applied and the effect of such scoring on the overall norm-referenced psychometrics is determined and described. While individual students move within the overall norm, the average influence of polytomous scoring as conceived by the workshops does not substantially change the ability to do norm-based comparisons. ABSTRACT: The concept of assigning partial credit on multiple-choice test items is considered for items from ACS Exams. Because the items on these exams, particularly the quantitative items, use common student errors to define incorrect answers, it is possible to assign partial credits to some of these incorrect responses. To do so, however, it becomes vital that instructors reach general agreement as to the level of partial credit. Using workshops with instructors, ACS Exams has identified reasons why partial credit could be assigned in an exam set of 70 test items. With partial-credit assignments thus established, polytomous scoring is applied and the effect of such scoring on the overall norm-referenced psychometrics is determined and described. While individual students move within the overall norm, the average influence of polytomous scoring as conceived by the workshops does not substantially change the ability to do norm-based comparisons.
Physics education research (PER) is a relatively new and rapidly growing area of Ph.D. specialization. To sustain the field of PER, a steady pipeline of talented scholars needs to be developed and supported. One aspect of building this pipeline is understanding how students come to graduate and postdoctoral work in PER and what their career goals are. This paper presents the first study on the experiences and career pathways of students in PER. Data were collected through open-ended interviews with 13 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in PER. Results show that many of these PER graduate students and postdoctoral scholars were not aware of PER as undergraduates. PER graduate students that were aware of PER as undergraduates chose to study PER as they were applying to graduate schools. The graduate school experiences of the interviewees were overwhelmingly positive, with participants reporting a positive climate that was facilitated by communicative and productive relationships with their advisors. However, some participants reported concerns about the acceptance of PER within some departments, including open hostility towards the field. The majority of participants were interested in pursuing a career as a university faculty member, with more participants preferring a position at a research-intensive university. These results suggest that a further large-scale study of graduate students in PER may be able to highlight the field as being a leader in student mentoring and community development while collecting important demographic information that could show PER to have more gender diversity than other subfields of physics.
. The effect of using an explicit general problem solving teaching approach on elementary pre-service teachers' ability to solve heat transfer problems. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 2(3),[164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172][173][174] This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.Authors alone are responsible for the contents of their articles. The journal owns the copyright of the articles.The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of the research material. AbstractThis study investigate the effectiveness of adding an 'explicit general problem solving teaching strategy' (EGPS) to guided inquiry (GI) on pre-service elementary school teachers' ability to solve heat transfer problems. The pre-service elementary teachers in this study were enrolled in two sections of a chemistry course for pre-service elementary teachers' at a four year university. One section of this class was taught a treatment method, the explicit general problem solving approach, while the other section was taught using guided inquiry approach. Quantitative data was obtained using a post-test while qualitative data was obtained probing questions. The scores for the two teaching approaches showed no significant difference. Further, qualitative data indicated little difference in the way participants solved their problems regardless of instructional approach. Hence, this study concludes that both EGPS and guided inquiry have comparable effectiveness of teaching problem solving.
The low representation of women in physics is apparent at the undergraduate level through faculty positions. However, when looking at the percentage of PhD women graduates in the closely related field astronomy (40%) and women PhDs in physics education research (30%), it is found that those areas have higher representations of women compared to women physics PhD graduates (18%). This study seeks to understand the research subfield choice of women in academic physics and astronomy at large US research universities through in-depth interviews and a grounded theory analytical approach. Though preliminary results have not shown why women chose their graduate research field, they have shown that positive pre-college experiences are bringing these women to physics, while supportive advisors and collaboration amongst students are encouraging these women to persist.
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