Education research: SPCI gains (Cuesta College, Fall Semester 2008)

The Star Properties Concept Inventory (SPCI, developed by Janelle Bailey, University of Nevada-Las Vegas) was administered to Astronomy 210 (one-semester introductory astronomy) students at Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA during the last week of instruction, at both the main San Luis Obispo campus and the North County campus at Paso Robles.

     Cuesta College    Cuesta College
     Astronomy 210     Astronomy 210
     SLO campus        NC campus
     Fall Semester     Fall Semester
     2008              2008
N    66 students*      26 students*
low   4                 6
mean 10.7 +/- 3.0      12.5 +/- 3.3
high 17                17

*Excludes students with negative informed consent forms (*.pdf), the use of which is discussed in a previous post.

A "Student" t-test of the null hypothesis results in p = 0.013, thus there is a significant difference between students at these two Cuesta College campuses. In comparison, the t-test of pre-test scores from both campuses was p = 0.28, which was not significant.

The averages for each section of the initial and final SPCI scores (given as percentages, with standard deviations), as well as the Hake normalized gain <g> are given below:

Astronomy 210 Fall Semester 2008 section 70158 (SLO campus)
<initial%> = 29% +/- 12% (N = 86)
  <final%> = 47% +/- 12% (N = 66)
       <g> = 0.23 +/- 0.18 (matched-pairs); 0.24 (class-wise)

Astronomy 210 Fall Semester 2008 section 70160 (NC campus)
<initial%> = 32% +/-  9% (N = 32)
  <final%> = 54% +/- 14% (N = 26)
       <g> = 0.32 +/- 0.19 (matched-pairs); 0.33 (class-wise)

For this NC campus section, this Hake gain is greater than previous gains for introductory astronomy classes, as discussed in previous posts on this blog.

Notable about both these Astronomy 210 classes at Cuesta College this semester is not just the mere implementation of electronic response system "clickers" (Classroom Performance System, einstruction.com), but the use of known best practices of using clickers (i.e., "think-(pair)-share"), from current education research. However, there seemed to have been much more peer-interaction in the smaller NC campus class than in the larger, "diffuse" SLO campus. More analysis on the impact of using clickers on this introductory astronomy class will be forthcoming on this blog.

For earlier results at Cuesta College and further discussion of the SPCI, see previous posts:

Education research: SPCI gains (Cuesta College, Spring Semester 2006-Spring Semester 2007).

Education research: SPCI gains (Cuesta College, Summer Session 2007).

Education research: SPCI gains (Cuesta College, Fall Semester 2007).

Education research: SPCI gains (Cuesta College, Spring Semester 2008).