Researchers and practitioners routinely use the normalized gain (Hake, 1998) to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Normalized gain (g) has been useful in distinguishing active engagement from traditional instruction. Recently, concerns were raised about normalized gain because it implicitly neglects retention (or, equivalently, “losses”). That is to say, g assumes no right answers become wrong after instruction. We analyze individual standardized gain (G) and loss (L) in data collected at Harvard University during the first five years that Peer Instruction was developed. We find that losses are non‐zero, and that losses are larger among students with lower pre‐test performances. These preliminary results warrant further research, particularly with different student populations, to establish whether the failure to address loss changes the conclusions drawn from g.
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24 October 2010
2010 PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH CONFERENCE
21–22 July 2010
Portland, (Oregon)
Research Article|
October 24 2010
Losing it: The Influence of Losses on Individuals’ Normalized Gains
Kelly Miller;
Kelly Miller
aMcGill University, Montreal Canada
dSchool of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
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Nathaniel Lasry;
Nathaniel Lasry
bCenter for the Study of Learning and Performance, Montreal Canada
cJohn Abbott College, Montreal Canada
dSchool of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
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Orad Reshef;
Orad Reshef
aMcGill University, Montreal Canada
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Jason Dowd;
Jason Dowd
eDepartment of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
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Ives Araujo;
Ives Araujo
dSchool of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
fPhysics Institute, UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre‐RS, Brazil
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Eric Mazur
Eric Mazur
dSchool of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
eDepartment of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
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AIP Conf. Proc. 1289, 229–232 (2010)
Citation
Kelly Miller, Nathaniel Lasry, Orad Reshef, Jason Dowd, Ives Araujo, Eric Mazur; Losing it: The Influence of Losses on Individuals’ Normalized Gains. AIP Conf. Proc. 24 October 2010; 1289 (1): 229–232. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3515208
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