Education research: ECCE statistics (fall semester 2010)

Students at Cuesta College (San Luis Obispo, CA) were administered a shortened version (22 out of 45 questions) of the Electric Circuit Concept Evaluation (David Sokoloff, University of Oregon) during the first and the last week of instruction. Physics 205B is the second semester of an algebra-based introductory general physics course covering optics, electromagnetism, and modern physics, with a mandatory adjunct laboratory component.

The pre- to post-test gain for this semester at Cuesta College is:

Physics 205B Fall Semester 2010 section 70856
<initial%> = 39% +/- 13% (N = 13)
  <final%> = 44% +/- 14% (N = 11)
       <g> = 0.06 +/- 0.26 (matched-pairs); 0.10 (class-wise)

Caution is advised in interpreting these results due to the extremely small number of students in this section.