Re: Learning Physics with a Statistical Gold Standard

Some blog followers might be interested in a discussion-list post “Re: Learning Physics with a Statistical Gold Standard” [Hake (2011)].

The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: Physoc’s Priscilla Laws (2011) wrote (paraphrasing): “One of the difficulties with many recent comments on tests to determine the efficacy of physics teaching methods is that we have no consensus about what should be the standard for student learning.” Priscilla then listed 7 alternatives as to what students should learn.

Probably unknown to Priscilla and most of the PER community, I listed similar alternatives in an AJP rejected article “Interactive-engagement methods in introductory mechanics courses” [Hake (1998b)].

At least partially due to AJP’s rejection of Hake (1998b), aspects of the research reported in Hake (1998a,b) have sometimes been grossly misrepresented in the PER literature. Unfortunately the review process for PER papers is, IMHO, sadly deficient, resulting for the physics-education literature in: (a) the loss of many exemplary articles, and (b) the addition of many articles that are problematic at best.
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To access the complete 18 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/nlyfCC .


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which
Recognize the Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)

rrhake@earthlink.net
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi
http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com
http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake

“EDITOR: A person employed on a newspaper. . . [or journal]. . . , whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see to it that the chaff is printed.”
- Elbert Hubbard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbert_Hubbard

REFERENCES [URL’s shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 24 July 2011.]

Hake, R.R. 2011. “Re: Learning Physics with a Statistical Gold Standard,” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/nlyfCC. Post of 24 Jul 2011 11:12:13-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post were transmitted to various discussion lists.

Laws, P. 2011. “Learning Physics with a Statistical Gold Standard,” Physoc post of 12 Jul 2011 20:26:15+0000; online at http://bit.ly/ncefcM. To access the archives of PHYSOC one needs to subscribe :-(, but that takes only a few minutes by clicking on http://bit.ly/dVm2AM and then clicking on “Join or leave the list (or change settings.” If you're busy, then subscribe using the “NOMAIL” option under “Miscellaneous.” Then, as a subscriber, you may access the archives and/or post messages at any time, while receiving NO MAIL from the list!

The Cult of Statistical Significance

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent post of the above title.

The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: Math-Teach's Domenico Rosa has called attention to the review of Ziliak & McCloskey's (2008) Cult of Statistical Significance by Olle Häggström (2010). According to Häggström, Ziliak & McCloskey's major point is that "many researchers are so obsessed with statistical significance that they neglect to ask themselves whether the detected discrepancies are large enough to be of any subject-matter significance." Consistent with that outlook, in "Lessons from the Physics Education Reform Effort" [Hake (2002)] I cited the position of many psychologists and biologists that the "effect size" is a preferred alternative (or at least addition) to the usually inappropriate t-tests and p values associated with "Null Hypothesis Statistical Significance Testing" (NHSST). Nevertheless, many educational researchers (even some physicists) still utilize only NHSST to gauge the significance of their research results.

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To access the complete 14 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/b638lM .

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University

Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands

President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the

Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)

rrhake@earthlink.net>

http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake

http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi

http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com

http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake

"After 4 decades of severe criticism, the ritual of null hypothesis significance testing - mechanical dichotomous decisions around a sacred 0.05 criterion - still persists."

-Jacob Cohen (1994) in "The earth is round (p less than 0.05)" http://bit.ly/a45I2t

REFERENCES [URL's shortened by http://bit.ly/ ]

Hake, R.R. 2010. "The Cult of Statistical Significance," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/b638lM. Post of 10 Oct 2010 19:34:16-0700 to AERA-L, Math-Teach, & Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are also being transmitted to various discussion lists.