A review of studies about four-tier diagnostic tests in physics education

Abstract

The aim of this research was to conduct a review of studies using four-tier tests to detect misconceptions in physics education. Fifty-eight studies whose main purpose was to develop a four-tier misconception test and eleven studies whose purpose was to determine learners' misconceptions using a four-tier diagnostic test without test development process in physics education between 2010 and 2022 inclusive with respect to their publication type, the publication year, the number of authors, and number of pages and whether the test was modified or not. General test information such as the physics topic that it examined, the number of misconceptions which were targeted, misconception criteria, validity, and reliability techniques and the number of items were also collected. Indonesia is the country where most of the studies were carried out. Surprisingly, it is found that there is no common agreement about misconception criteria in the studies. Also, it is seen that some important information about test development stages was not specified in many studies.