Measuring the effect of instruction

Teaching as a science: As part of the endless pursuit of teaching excellence faculty develop and each year modify course materials in an attempt to help students learn as much science as possible in a semester. The goals include teaching the content as well as an appreciation for the science and how it connects to our everyday lives. At the same time we expect our students to learn what it is to do science and be a scientist. How can we measure the effectiveness of our teaching methods and compare them from year to year and from university to university? Since the mid-90's physics instructors have been using the FCI (Force Concept Inventory) to measure something, conceptual understanding maybe, in first semester introductory physics. Many other conceptual inventories have followed. In 2005 the CLASS was developed to measure student's perceptions and beliefs about learning physics. Quite often faculty are surprised and disappointed in the outcomes of these measures. As a colleague so eloquently stated, “St...