Benefits for teaching & learning, particularly for students Students who volunteered in the study tested their classical mechanics skills, developed in high school, against an international and well-established standardised tool. This provided the opportunity to reflect on their baseline conceptual understanding – and possible gaps thereof – at the onset of the semester. Similarly, we used the FCI to evaluate the baseline comprehension of Newtonian mechanics presented to first-year students enrolled in introductory physics courses. By pursuing a question-by-question breakdown of the test results, we could see what percentage of each question was answered incorrectly and also to confirm if similar cohorts answered with the same `wrong-answer’ type. Based on the most popular incorrect answer, we can identify ‘dominant misconceptions’. Given more data, one could perhaps envisage being able to use the FCI as a predictor for future performance in a given course, or rather, being able to tailor a pedagogical response to maximise conceptual development in a class. References Bani-Salameh H N 2016 Phys. Educ. 52 015006. Bani-Salameh H N 2016 Phys. Educ. 52 014003. Martin-Blas T, Seidel L and Serrano-Fernandez A 2010 Eur. J. Eng. Educ. 35 597. Halloun I. A. and Hestenes D 1985 Am. J. Phys. 53 1043. Hestenes D, Wells M and Swackhamer G 1992 Phys. Teach. 30 141. Hestenes D 1998 Am. J. Phys. 66 465. FEBE Annual Report, University of Johannesburg 2019 [https://www.uj.ac.za/wp-content/ uploads/2022/03/febe-ar2020-final-report-final-to-meca.pdf ] Alinea A L 2020 Eur. J. Phys. 41 065707. McKagan S B, Strubbe L E, Barbato L J, Mason B A, Madsen A M, and Sayre E C 2020 The Physics Teacher, 58(7), 465-469. Students who volunteered in the study tested their classical mechanics skills, developed in high school, against an international and well-established standardised tool. How could others learn from this project In this project, we began investigating how possible correlations with certain subjects in high school matriculation results could be used to predict the academic performance of a student in their first university physics course. This could help lecturers identify students who may need extra support before the semester even begins. The FCI has different language versions [9] but has not yet been translated into any of the other official South African languages. A possible avenue to explore could be the establishment of new versions of the FCI, where using the FCI online would grant students the possibility to choose their most suitable language. Acknowledgements EC and ASC are supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF). AC is supported by the NRF and Department of Science and Innovation through the SA-CERN programme, as well as by a Campus France scholarship. WN is supported by a Faculty of Education and Arts Grant, ACU: Project Code No: 50-905300-111. Institutional and ethics support was obtained for this study under Ethics Reference Number: 2023-02-03/Cornell-R1. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2022 30
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