TY  - JOUR
A1  - Buschhüter, David
A1  - Spoden, Christian
A1  - Borowski, Andreas
T1  - Physics knowledge of first semester physics students in Germany
BT  - a comparison of 1978 and 2013 cohorts
JF  - International journal of science education
N2  - Over the last decades, the percentage of the age group choosing to pursue university studies has increased significantly across the world. At the same time, there are university teachers who believe that the standards have fallen. There is little research on whether students nowadays demonstrate knowledge or abilities similar to that of the preceding cohorts. However, in times of educational expansion, empirical evidence on student test performance is extremely helpful in evaluating how well educational systems cope with the increasing numbers of students. In this study, we compared a sample of 2322 physics freshmen from 2013 with another sample of 2718 physics freshmen from 1978 at universities in Germany with regard to their physics knowledge based on their results in the same entrance test. Previous results on mathematics knowledge and abilities in the same sample of students indicated that there was no severe decline in their average achievement. This paper compares the physics knowledge of the same two samples of students. Contrary to their mathematics results, their physics results showed a substantial decrease in physics knowledge as measured by the test.
KW  - University physics
KW  - entrance test
KW  - generational comparison
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2017.1318457
SN  - 0950-0693
SN  - 1464-5289
VL  - 39
IS  - 9
SP  - 1109
EP  - 1132
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -