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Advanced Quantitative Measurement Methodology in Physics Education Research

Wang, Jing
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1249366709

Abstract Details

2009, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Physics.
The ultimate goal of physics education research (PER) is to develop a theoretical framework to understand and improve the learning process. Developing research-based effective assessment instruments and making meaningful inferences based on these instruments have always been important goals of the PER community. Quantitative studies are often conducted to provide bases for test development and result interpretation.Statistics are frequently used in quantitative studies. The selection of statistical methods and interpretation of the results obtained by these methods shall be connected to the education background. In this connecting process, the issues of educational models are often raised. Many widely used statistical methods do not make assumptions on the mental structure of subjects, nor do they provide explanations tailored to the educational audience. There are also other methods that consider the mental structure and are tailored to provide strong connections between statistics and education. These methods often involve model assumption and parameter estimation, and are complicated mathematically. The dissertation provides a practical view of some advanced quantitative assessment methods. The purpose of the study is to provide a comparison between these advanced methods and the pure mathematical methods. The dissertation includes three parts. The first part involves the comparison between item response theory (IRT) and classical test theory (CTT). The two theories both provide test item statistics for educational inferences and decisions. The two theories are both applied to Force Concept Inventory data obtained from students enrolled in The Ohio State University. Effort was made to examine the similarity and difference between the two theories, and the possible explanation to the difference. The study suggests that item response theory is more sensitive to the context and conceptual features of the test items than classical test theory. The second part of the dissertation is on the measure of association for binary data. In quantitative assessment, binary data is often encountered because of its simplicity. The current popular measures of association fail under some extremely unbalanced conditions. However, the occurrence of these conditions is not rare in educational data. Two popular association measures, the Pearson’s correlation and the tetrachoric correlation are examined. A new method, model based association is introduced, and an educational testing constraint is discussed. Connections between the value of association and the context and conceptual features of questions are discussed in detail. Results show that all the methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Special attention to the test and data conditions is necessary. The last part of the dissertation is focused on exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The theoretical advantages of EFA are discussed. Typical misunderstanding and misusage of EFA are explored. The EFA is performed on Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR), a widely used assessment on scientific reasoning skills. The reasoning ability structures for U. S. and Chinese students at different educational levels are given by the analysis. A final discussion on the advanced quantitative assessment methodology and the pure mathematical methodology is presented at the end.
Lei Bao, Prof. (Advisor)
Richard Furnstahl, Prof. (Committee Member)
Andrew Heckler, Prof. (Committee Member)
Evan Sugarbaker, Prof. (Committee Member)
239 p.
Education; Educational Evaluation; Physics
Quantitative; Assessment; Measurement; Physics Education Research; Item Response Theory; Exploratory Factor Analysis; Model Based Association

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Citations

  • Wang, J. (2009). Advanced Quantitative Measurement Methodology in Physics Education Research [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1249366709

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Jing. Advanced Quantitative Measurement Methodology in Physics Education Research. 2009. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1249366709.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Jing. "Advanced Quantitative Measurement Methodology in Physics Education Research." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1249366709

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1249366709
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© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.