Some Factors in Physics Achievement at the College Level

The Peter Effect in Early Experimental Education Research

“…Rucci and Tweney [11, p. 169] have identified Reitz [26] as the only ANOVA-based JXE article published before 1940, which enabled me to narrow my manual search of the journal to the years 1940 through 1944. In doing so, I identified 12 additional articles that employ the ANOVA: Edgerton et al [27]; Stuit and Donnelly [28]; Gabel [29]; Stuit and Lapp [30]; Sells, Loftus, and Herbert [31]; Prichard and Ojemann [32]; Long and Welch [33]; Musselman [34]; Meshke [35]; Clark [36]; Smith [37]; and Tsao [38]. Tsao [38], however, was excluded from the study, owing to my impression that, as a methodologist substantially concerned with the development and refinement of methods, he possessed a set of interests and a perspective that lay too far beyond the realm of education for his work to be considered a homogenous contribution to the collection [39,40].…”

“…To examine the distribution of agency in early experimental education research, I examined the methods-related sections of the 12 ANOVA-based experimental articles published in JXE between 1932 and 1944 [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. My unit of analysis was the verb phrase, that is, any phrase that included a verb as long as the verb was not acting as a gerund.…”

“…To trace the sedimentation of Fisher's 0.05 in experimental education research, I collected all 0.05-based experimental articles published in JXE between 1932 and 1944. In doing so, I identified 25 articles: Hagman [52]; Wenger [53]; Lyon [54]; Stump [55]; Edgerton et al [27]; Gabel [29]; Stuit and Lapp [30]; Sells, Loftus, and Herbert [31]; Worbois [56]; Long and Welch [33]; Stewart [57]; Appel [58]; Dawe [59]; Worbois [60]; Morse and Chittenden [61]; Meshke [35]; Smith [37]; Goldfarb [62]; Hastings [63]; Tschechtelin [64]; Willits [65]; Thelen [66]; McNiel [67]; Patterson [68]; and Tsao [38]. Tsao [38], however, was excluded from the study, owing to my impression that, as a methodologist substantially concerned with the development and refinement of methods, he possessed a set of interests and a perspective that lay too far beyond the realm of education for his work to be considered a homogenous contribution to the collection [39,40].…”

Mechanical ability as a factor in engineering aptitude.

“…High school grades have been found by several investigators to yield better prediction of college achievement than test results (8,29), but there are serious difficulties m dealing with data of this kind where the students come from many high schools. As Jones and Brown (13) point out "the conditions in different schools and localities are so different that any predictions based on facts from school records will vary greatly from place to place " In some of the studies of engineering aptitude, grades in particular subjects are considered in their relation to college success Dvorak and Sayler (5) Stuit (29) found the Iowa Physics Test and the Mann Mutilated Cubes Test to be the best of a number of measures tried for predicting success in college physics.…”