The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of cognitive-conflict-based physics instruction over the traditionally designed physics instruction on students' conceptual change in heat and temperature. The subjects were 249 senior secondary II students from 2 schools purposively sampled from 12 secondary schools. The 2 schools sampled had well-equipped laboratory, experienced physics teachers, and two intact classes. One of the intact classes in each school was assigned to control group. In one school, there were 70 subjects for experimental group and 60 for control group, while in the other school, there were 60 for experimental group and 59 for control group. Both groups were taught by the same teacher, and this lasted for 6 weeks of intensive treatment. The experimental group received cognitive-conflict-based instruction, while the control group received traditionally designed physics instruction. The instrument for obtaining the data was thermal concept evaluation (TCE). Students in both groups were pretested using TCE to establish their level of initial understanding of heat and temperature. At the end of the treatment, the same test was administered as posttest. The data generated from the TCE were analyzed using frequency and chi-square statistics, indicating that the level of understanding of heat and temperature was significantly dependent on the treatment. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made.
Knowledge of physics to many students is described in quantitative terms such as how much scientific vocabulary and how many formulae have been memorized. However, only few students can successfully make connections to apply the scientific knowledge in answering questions in physics. That is, physics students answer questions in relation to their emergent views mainly based on their prior knowledge about everyday experience which is at variance with scientific knowledge in a typical physics classroom. It is evident that teaching and learning of physics concepts introduced in verbal and mathematical definitions may not promote conceptual understanding of physics even after instruction. Therefore, no relationship exists between students, prior knowledge in physics and scientific understanding of physics concepts as they attempt to answer physics questions that probe their scientific understanding. Hence, the main purpose of this study was to ascertain if relationship exist among scientific explanation of phenomenon, imagination and concept formation (predictor variables) and students' understanding of physics concepts (criterion) and amount of variation in the criterion variable that can be attributed to the predictor variables. The study adopted a correlation research design. The sample of the study was 385 respondents drawn from the population of Senior Secondary III Physics Students of 2016/2017 academic session in the government owned secondary schools in Akure Education Zone of Ondo State. The instruments for data collection were four namely: Students' Scientific Explanation of Phenomenon Test (SSEPT), Students' Scientific Imagination Scale (SSIS), Students' Scientific Concept Formation Test (SSCFT), and Students' Understanding of Physics Concept Test (SUPCT). SSEPT and SUPCT were ten (10) structured essay questions each. The internal consistency indices obtained were 0.81 and 0.86 respectively. An internal consistency of twenty (20) item structured questionnaire of (SSIS), modeled on a four (4) point rating was determined using Cronbach Alpha formula and was found to be scale 0.85.Also, the internal consistence index of SSCFT with twenty multiple choice items was determined using Kuder-Richardson 20 (K-R20) Formula and was found to be 0.82. The research questions were answered using Pearson-Product Moment Correlation and coefficient of determination The Null hypotheses were tested using Multiple-Regression analysis at.05 level of significance. Results showed that there was a statistically significant relationship among students' scientific explanation of phenomenon, students' scientific imagination, students' scientific concept formation and students' understanding of physics concepts. It was recommended among other things that Physics teachers should help in fostering conceptual understanding of physics concepts in physics students using scientific explanation of phenomenon to trigger students' scientific imagination and students' scientific concept formation.
The effects of analogy teaching approach on students' conceptual understanding of the concept of refraction of light in Physics were examined. A 20-item Physics Concept Test (PCT) developed by the researcher was used to collect the relevant data from a sample 111 physics students using pre-test and post-test. The sample was selected from two single sex secondary schools (one male and one female) in Akure Urban of Ondo State of Nigeria. Mean and standard deviation and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were employed. The result showed that the use of analogy teaching model has a positive effect on SS 2 Physics students and that female students out-performed their male counterparts irrespective of the teaching method used. The interaction effect of the instructional model and gender was not significant (p < 05). Recommendations include that physics teachers, and all stakeholders in education should endeavor to incorporate analogy instructional model as one of the approaches to be adopted in Nigerian secondary schools since it increases students' interest and learning in sciences especially in physics.
This study focused on the Effect of Concept Mapping Teaching Strategy on students’ conceptual change in physics. Two research questions guided the study. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the probability of 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design. The study was carried out in Agbani Education zone of Enugu State. One hundred and nineteen students consisting of 63 boys and 56 girls from three co-educational schools were selected through purposive sampling for the study. Two intact streams of SSS 2 students in each of the secondary schools were used. The experimental group was taught concepts/principles involving refraction of the light wave using concept mapping while the control group was taught the same topics in optics using the conventional method. Thirty items on Test on Physics Concept (TPC) were developed by the researchers. The items were validated by three experts, one in measurement and evaluation and two in the Department of Science Education with a physics background, all from the Department of Science Education University of Nigeria Nsukka. Content validation was also carried out based on the table of specification. The reliability of the items was tested using the Kendall coefficient of concordance (W) with a coefficient of 0.81. Data on students' conceptual change in physics were collected using TPC. Pre-test scores were collected before the treatment while the post-test was administered after the treatment. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results of data analyzed revealed that there exists a difference between the mean scores of physics students in Test of physics concepts when taught using concept mapping and lecture methods in favour of the group taught light waves using concept mapping strategy. That there exists no significant difference between the mean scores of male and female physics students in a test of physics concepts when taught using concept mapping and lecture methods. The recommendations among others are that concept mapping and lecture methods should be used interchangeably in the teaching of physics to breach the gap in performance between male and female students and concept mapping instructional strategy should be used to promote conceptual change in physics.
The main purpose of this study therefore was to analyze the psychometric qualities of NECO mathematics essay test using generalized partial credit model. The study adopted an instrumentation research design and was carried out in Benue state of Nigeria. The population of the study was 41,836 SS 3 students who registered for June/July NECO SSCE Examination in Benue State of Nigeria and a sample size of 650 students were used. The instrument for this study was an adopted NECO 2016 and 2017 June/July mathematics essay questions. The instrument for the study was administered to the respondents by the mathematics teachers in the sampled schools under the supervision of the researcher. Data was analysed using item parameter estimates of R-Package to answer the research questions, while t-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. The result of the study showed that NECO 2016 and 2017 mathematics essay questions were unidimensional in nature. NECO 2016 had lower step difficulties than NECO 2017. NECO mathematics essay test for 2016 discriminated between high and low ability students than the NECO mathematics essay test for 2017. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that test developers and examination bodies such as NECO should undergo rigorous processes of psychometric properties of essay test before and after administration of test instrument. This will help the test developers to determine the existence of these psychometric properties and the need to establish them in any given test. It was also recommended that Seminars and workshops on Item Response Theory should be organized by the examination bodies for Psychometricians, test developers and teachers involved in test development.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.