PhysPort Assessments: Gender FCI

Gender FCI (G-FCI)

Developed by Laura McCullough

Purpose	To assess students’ understanding of the most basic concepts in Newtonian physics using everyday language and common-sense distractors, using contexts that are more "everyday" or "feminine.
Format	Pre/post, Multiple-choice
Duration	30 min
Focus	Mechanics Content knowledge (kinematics, forces)
Level	Intro college, High school

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Sample question from the G-FCI:

RESEARCH VALIDATION
more details

Bronze Validation
This is the third highest level of research validation, corresponding to at least 3 of the validation categories below.

Research Validation Summary

Based on Research Into:

Student thinking

Studied Using:

Student interviews
Expert review
Appropriate statistical analysis

Research Conducted:

At multiple institutions
By multiple research groups
Peer-reviewed publication

McCullough rewrote questions on the FCI to address the same content with more feminine and everyday contexts, e.g. changing a question about an airplane dropping a package to an eagle dropping a fish. She found that in a calculus-based introductory physics class the average scores for women on G-FCI were similar to those on the original FCI. Further, the gender gap in average scores on pre- and posttests was similar for the original and gender FCI. She compared the performance of men and women on individual questions on the original and gender FCI. She found that women performed better on gender FCI items 14 and 23, while men did worse on gender FCI item 22 and better on item 29. These differences averaged out so that overall, rewriting the FCI to have more feminine and everyday contexts did not change the gender gap. (McCullough and Meltzer 2001, McCullough 2002, McCullough 2011)

References

L. McCullough, Gender Differences in Student Responses to Physics Conceptual Questions Based on Question Context, presented at the ASQ Advancing the STEM Agenda in Education, the Workplace and Society, University of Wisconsin-Stout, 2011.
L. McCullough, Gender, Math, and the FCI, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2002, Boise, Idaho, 2002.
L. McCullough and D. Meltzer, Differences in Male/Female Response Patterns on Alternative-format Versions of the Force Concept Inventory, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2001, Rochester, New York, 2001.

Variations

	Force Concept Inventory Content knowledge Mechanics (forces, kinematics) Intro college, High school Pre/post, Multiple-choice
	Simplified Force Concept Inventory Content knowledge Mechanics (kinematics, forces) High school, Middle school Pre/post, Multiple-choice
	Familiar Context Force Concept Inventory Content knowledge Mechanics (kinematics, forces) Intro college, High school Pre/post, Multiple-choice

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Supporting physics teaching with research-based resources

Examples

Resources

Research

Research Validation Summary

Based on Research Into:

Studied Using:

Research Conducted:

References

Translations

Scoring

Versions

Variations

Force Concept Inventory

Simplified Force Concept Inventory

Familiar Context Force Concept Inventory

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