The purpose of this study was to determine if there are relationship among freshmen students' Field depended or field independent (FD/FI) cognitive style, conceptual understandings, and problem solving skills in mechanics. The sample consisted of 213 freshmen (female = 111, male = 102; age range 17-21) who were enrolled in an introductory physics course required for science education prospective teachers. Data collection was done during the fall semesters in three successive years. At the beginning of each semester the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) were administered to assess students' initial understanding of basic concepts in mechanics and FD/FI tendency of students, respectively. After completion of the course, the FCI and the Mechanics Base Line Test (MBT) were administered. The results indicated that students conceptual understanding were not statistically related to their FD/FI cognitive styles for both pre and post results. However, their problem-solving skills were statistically related to their FD/FI cognitive style. The findings of the present and previous studies are compared, and the possible effects of the present studies on previous studies on teaching, learning and assessment for introductory mechanics are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to determine if there are relationships among freshmen/first year students' reasoning abilities, conceptual understandings and problem-solving skills in introductory mechanics. The sample consisted of 165 freshmen science education prospective teachers (female = 86, male = 79; age range 17–21) who were enrolled in an introductory physics course. Data collection was done during the fall semesters in two successive years. At the beginning of each semester, the force concept inventory (FCI) and the classroom test of scientific reasoning (CTSR) were administered to assess students' initial understanding of basic concepts in mechanics and reasoning levels. After completing the course, the FCI and the mechanics baseline test (MBT) were administered. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in problem-solving skill test mean scores, as measured by the MBT, among concrete, formal and postformal reasoners. There were no significant differences in conceptual understanding levels of pre- and post-test mean scores, as measured by FCI, among the groups. The Benferroni post hoc comparison test revealed which set of reasoning levels showed significant difference for the MBT scores. No statistical difference between formal and postformal reasoners' mean scores was observed, while the mean scores between concrete and formal reasoners and concrete and postformal reasoners were statistically significantly different.
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