Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory

A performance gap between the genders has been observed on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) almost since its introduction. Many studies have sought to characterize this gender gap, however, few have tested the consistency of the factor structure across the genders. This study fills in this gap by o...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Philip Eaton
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/652376740d1c40dd85ffe586b4a0e2e1
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:652376740d1c40dd85ffe586b4a0e2e1
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:652376740d1c40dd85ffe586b4a0e2e12021-12-02T17:34:04ZEvidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.0101302469-9896https://doaj.org/article/652376740d1c40dd85ffe586b4a0e2e12021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010130http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010130https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896A performance gap between the genders has been observed on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) almost since its introduction. Many studies have sought to characterize this gender gap, however, few have tested the consistency of the factor structure across the genders. This study fills in this gap by offering the first piece of evidence that the genders (male and female due to data constraints) are interacting with the FCI in similar manners. Using multigroup measurement invariance techniques, a preinstruction sample of 6238 males and 2874 females, and a postinstruction sample of 6338 males and 2955 females, the latent variable structure of the FCI was tested for consistency between the genders. As this technique is not often used by the physics education research community, significant time was spent explaining the methodology. It was found that the Eaton and Willoughby five-factor modified (EW5M) model of the FCI factor structure exhibited strict invariance between the genders. Additionally, a single-factor model showed strong invariance and partial strict invariance for the FCI. Latent means from the EW5M model revealed that females underperform compared to males across all of the factors of the FCI, but these gaps in performance decreased over the course of instruction, however, some differences are still large. The results of this study suggest observed performance differences on the FCI between the genders may not be due to gender specific factor structure differences. However, this result is sample dependent and should be verified by other studies using different, independent samples.Philip EatonAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 17, Iss 1, p 010130 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Philip Eaton Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory
description	A performance gap between the genders has been observed on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) almost since its introduction. Many studies have sought to characterize this gender gap, however, few have tested the consistency of the factor structure across the genders. This study fills in this gap by offering the first piece of evidence that the genders (male and female due to data constraints) are interacting with the FCI in similar manners. Using multigroup measurement invariance techniques, a preinstruction sample of 6238 males and 2874 females, and a postinstruction sample of 6338 males and 2955 females, the latent variable structure of the FCI was tested for consistency between the genders. As this technique is not often used by the physics education research community, significant time was spent explaining the methodology. It was found that the Eaton and Willoughby five-factor modified (EW5M) model of the FCI factor structure exhibited strict invariance between the genders. Additionally, a single-factor model showed strong invariance and partial strict invariance for the FCI. Latent means from the EW5M model revealed that females underperform compared to males across all of the factors of the FCI, but these gaps in performance decreased over the course of instruction, however, some differences are still large. The results of this study suggest observed performance differences on the FCI between the genders may not be due to gender specific factor structure differences. However, this result is sample dependent and should be verified by other studies using different, independent samples.
format	article
author	Philip Eaton
author_facet	Philip Eaton
author_sort	Philip Eaton
title	Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory
title_short	Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory
title_full	Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory
title_fullStr	Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory
title_full_unstemmed	Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory
title_sort	evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the force concept inventory
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/652376740d1c40dd85ffe586b4a0e2e1
work_keys_str_mv	AT philipeaton evidenceofmeasurementinvarianceacrossgenderfortheforceconceptinventory
_version_	1718379944275345408

Evidence of measurement invariance across gender for the Force Concept Inventory

Ejemplares similares