Contact information
Name:
Zoe Boekelheide
Phone:
5102927900
Email:
boekelhz@lafayette.edu
Categories:
When:
Monday, October 19, 2020 - 4:15pm - 5:15pm
Where:
Zoom
Presenter:
Trevor Ian Smith, Rowan University
Price:
Free
Research-based multiple-choice assessment instruments are ubiquitous throughout both physics instruction and physics education research. The vast majority of analyses focus on whether or not a student selects correct answers, but this approach often undervalues the rich information that may be obtained by examining students' particular choices of incorrect answers. We aim to reveal some of this valuable information by quantitatively determining the relative correctness of various incorrect responses. We use the methods of Item Response Theory (IRT) to establish a ranking of incorrect responses to each item on a common multiple-choice test: the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation. The IRT model that we use is mathematically equivalent to the probability of a system being in a discrete degenerate energy state in the canonical ensemble; therefore, through analogy, we may interpret the various parameters in the model as being equivalent to temperature, energy, and degeneracy. This analogy provides deeper insights into the implications of our results and allows for the possibility of extending the model by considering analogies of macroscopic quantities, such as average energy and entropy.
https://lafayette.zoom.us/j/91401411054?pwd=a2tva3JFbFR3cXRYV1ZQaTBhTEM3UT09
Meeting ID: 914 0141 1054
Passcode: 168369
Sponsored by:
Department of Physics