Evidence for a Normal Distribution of Normalized Gains

Autor/in	Coletta, Vincent P.
Titel	Evidence for a Normal Distribution of Normalized Gains
Quelle	In: Physical Review Physics Education Research, 19 (2023) 1, Artikel 010111 (5 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Schlagwörter	Physics; Science Instruction; Scientific Concepts; Concept Formation; Regression (Statistics); Statistical Distributions; Achievement Gains; Science Achievement; College Students; High School Students; College Entrance Examinations; Scores; Foreign Countries; United States; Europe; SAT (College Admission Test) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Physik; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung; Regression; Regressionsanalyse; Wahrscheinlichkeitsverteilung; Achievement gain; Leistungssteigerung; Collegestudent; High school; High schools; Student; Students; Oberschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Aufnahmeprüfung; Ausland; USA; Europa
Abstract	Recently Burkholder "et al." argued that class normalized gains over the entire population of courses is approximated by a Cauchy distribution, not by a normal distribution, and therefore should not be used to compare different classes because means and standard deviations cannot be calculated. They argued that multiple linear regression should be used instead. Burkholder "et al." provided very little data in support of their belief, but instead provided a theoretical argument with certain assumptions. We shall show that these assumptions are unreasonable. We also show explicitly how normalized gains from 114 classes taught by six different instructors are indeed normally distributed and how two other even larger samples are roughly normally distributed and are not remotely like a Cauchy distribution. The continued use of normalized gains by physics instructors is therefore justified. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Physical Society. One Physics Ellipse 4th Floor, College Park, MD 20740-3844. Tel: 301-209-3200; Fax: 301-209-0865; e-mail: assocpub@aps.org; Web site: https://journals.aps.org/prper/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01