Assessment Recommendations
10 Recommendations are tagged with "Assessment"
How can I assess the level of student engagement in my class?
June 20, 2017 by Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado BoulderInstructors who are attempting active learning are often concerned that students won't like it, or will resist. It can be hard, even in the middle of a course, to gauge how well-engaged students are. This fifth chapter of our student engagement series focuses on ways to assess student engagement, both formally and informally. CHAPTER 5: ASSESSMENT
engagement, assessment, active learning, productive engagement
Addressing common concerns about concept inventories
July 8, 2016 by Adrian Madsen, Sam McKagan and Eleanor SayreConcept inventories are useful for assessing the effectiveness of your teaching, but as you use them, concerns and questions often come up. Here we discuss some common concerns about using concept inventories and related research that addresses these concerns.
assessment, concept inventories
What are some tips for using PhET with homework?
June 28, 2016 by Stephanie ChasteenPhET simulations are free, online interactive simulations for teaching and learning science. PhET is ideal for use in homework because the simulations are designed to cue students to explore cause-and-effect relationships, even without an instructor present.
active learning, PhET Interactive Simulations, homework, assessment
Normalized gain: What is it and when and how should I use it?
March 18, 2016 by Sam McKagan, Eleanor Sayre, and Adrian MadsenIntroduction to normalized gain:
The normalized gain, introduced by Hake in 1998 "as a rough measure of the effectiveness of a course in promoting conceptual understanding," has become the standard measure for reporting scores on research-based concept inventories. Hake defined the average normalized gain as:
<g> = (<Post> - <Pre>)/(100 - <Pre>)
assessment, concept inventories, normalized gain, best practices
Effect size: What is it and when and how should I use it?
March 18, 2016 by Adrian Madsen, Eleanor Sayre, and Sam McKaganWhen making changes in the way we teach our physics classes, we often want to measure the impact of these changes on our students' learning. Often we do this by administering a research-based assessment at the beginning and end of the class and calculating the change between pre and post. There are several different measures that can be used to tell you, in one number, how to compare learning...
assessment, concept inventories, effect size, best practices
Recursos en Español / Research-based teaching resources in Spanish
March 16, 2016 by Sam McKagan, PhysPort DirectorPhysPort es un recurso de internet para apoyar a los profesores de física a utilizar estrategias de enseñanza y evaluación basadas en investigación en sus clases. El sitio es en ingles, pero muchos de los recursos a que se refiere han sido traducido a español. Esta página tiene una lista de recursos para enseñanza y evaluación…
active learning, assessment, español
Arguments for skeptical colleagues
February 12, 2016 by Sam McKagan, PhysPort DirectorDo your skeptical colleagues question you or ask you to justify your use of research-based teaching methods in physics? This recommendation provides answers to the most frequently asked questions about research-based teaching in physics from your skeptical colleagues.
-What is PER and why should I care?
-What are research-based teaching methods in physics and why should I care?
skeptical colleagues, physics education research, active learning, assessment, problem-solving
Ten results of physics education research that every physics instructor should know
February 11, 2016 by Sam McKagan, PhysPort DirectorThis is a draft outline for an article describing the results of physics education research that are most important for practicing physics instructors to know and apply in their classrooms. We will be publishing the results in installments on PhysPort. The goals of this article are to explain the research behind each result in enough detail that readers can easily understand why…
physics education research, active learning, assessment, problem-solving, beliefs
Guidelines for administering concept inventories online
February 10, 2016 by Adrian Madsen & Sam McKagan, PhysPort Assistant Director & DirectorConcept inventories such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) have had a major impact on physics education reform: The FCI, a test of basic concepts of forces and acceleration, has been given to thousands of students throughout the country and the results show that PER-based teaching methods lead to dramatic improvements in students’ conceptual understanding of mechanics. These…
assessment, concept inventories, best practices
How can I get my students’ answers to concept inventories into electronic spreadsheets?
February 10, 2016 by Sam McKagan, PhysPort DirectorIf you are using multiple-choice concept inventories such as the FCI, BEMA, or CLASS to assess your students’ learning, the PhysPort Data Explorer can help you get instant analysis and visualization of your results. In order to use the Data Explorer, you’ll need to have your students’ responses in some kind of electronic spreadsheet, such as an Excel or .csv file.…
assessment, concept inventories
