Statistical Analysis of a Feeling of Attainment for Students Taking a Class in Fundamental Physics and of its Correlation and Causal Relation with Student Evaluation of Instruction and Exam Scores

Abstract

Data on a level of scholastic attainment measured through a self-evaluation made by students taking a class of fundamental physics have been analyzed by using principal-component analysis. The first principal component of the data is interpreted as a comprehensive attainment level. Multiple-regression analysis has shown that the comprehensive attainment level has a large correlation with the second principal component of data on students′ evaluation of teaching, which is interpreted as scholastic ability of students, and that it has a significant correlation with exam scores. Covariance structure analysis has revealed that, while both scholastic ability and feeling of attainment are correlated highly with each other, both cause exam scores, and that an effect of the scholastic ability on scores in short exams is somewhat larger than that of the feeling of attainment, whereas the opposite holds for scores in the end-of-term exam. It has also shown that an effect of the feeling of attainment on the degree to which the students look with favor on physics is very large, though that of the scholastic ability is negligible.