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SENIOR
SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT’S MISCONCEPTIONS IN PHYSICS
ABSTRACT
This study
investigated the senior secondary school student’s misconceptions in Physics in
various Local Government Area of Lagos state. The major misconceptions were
outlined and the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using
gender, age and cultural as moderator variable. Three hundred (300) SSS III Physics
students were randomly selected from Eight (8) Senior Secondary Schools
purposively selected from four (4) various Local Government Area of Lagos which
constituted the sample of the study. Fifty (50) items test questions on
misconception of students in Physics which was the instruments used in
collecting data. The instruments were subjected to face, content and empirical
validations. The data collected were analyzed using Pearson moment correlation,
T-test. The results of the study showed a positive significant relationship
between students ‘gender and misconception in physics. Other findings of the
study are: there was significant relationship between the cultural background
of student and misconception in Physics. There was no significant relationship
between the students’ age and misconception in physics. The researcher
recommended that for students’ understanding of basic concepts in Physics,
attention should be focused on enhancing the students’ understanding by
providing adequate competent teachers and environmental factors; since students
cultural background is an important variable in achievement.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The major
concepts which underline and unify the topics in the SSS physics curriculum
content are motion and energy. Relevance of the topics to society in terms of
application is stressed throughout. Only the topics which are directly
derivable from the concepts and their sub concepts were selected. Generally,
the approach in the curriculum is to treat the topics under a unifying concept
in a general form and provide some elaboration in the applications in order to
advocate relevance and use copious illustration to aid understanding.
Research on
physics learning has revealed that students come to their physics course with
already ideas about the world that differ from accepted scientific ideas. This
initial common sense will be used to refer to misconception. There is a
research which showed that it is difficult for students to change their initial
common sense (McDermott,1990) because their own believes are grounded in long
personal experience. Changing initial ideas of students is often difficult. It
is necessary to connect the new knowledge with their existing knowledge
structure.
The
effectiveness of introductory physics instruction is important to improve
student attitudes toward an understanding of scientific process; for example,
improve ability in quantitative problem solving, improve students’ laboratory
skill, improve students’ understanding of physics concepts, and reasoning
skill. Some scientific explanation of physical phenomena often differs from the
intuitive ideas or existing conceptual structures. How physics is learned and
designing more effective approaches to teach physics will be our ultimate goal.
One of
difficult topics in teaching physics is electricity and magnetism students
often have difficulty in understanding electricity and magnetism because it is
the abstract nature of the subject which is difficult to visualize and the
mathematical relationships can be complex. Electricity and magnetism is seen as
a central area of physics curricula at all level of education, primary,
secondary and tertiary. Students’ understanding of concept in electricity and
magnetism has not been investigated in as great detail as in mechanics. Some
research showed that teaching methods can be developed to change students’
ideas in electricity and magnetism with scientific model like conceptual
conflict and analogies (Driver et al.1994).
Over the
last 20 years, physics education research has revealed that students already
have a number of ideas about how physical systems behave even before they start
to study physics. In many cases these ideas often called alternative
conceptions or common sense science differ from accepted scientific ideas.
Other research has shown that it is difficult for students to change their
initial ideas.
The
development and extensive use of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) conceptual
test concerning some basic kinematics and Newton’s three laws has raised the
consciousness of many physics teachers about the effectiveness of traditional
education. Many physics instructors have expressed an interest in assessing
students’ knowledge of electricity and magnetism. However, developing an
instrument to assess students’ ideas in electricity and magnetism is a very
different task than development of the FCI.
Student’s
preconceptions in science have since aroused science educators’ interest for
over 30years because of the principle idea of constructivist learning theory,
which was stated as “students come to the learning environment with the
preconceptions, which were formed during their interactions within physical and
social environment and those preconceptions affect learning” (Pfundt and Duit,
2006). The main interest of studies focus on those preconceptions of which
especially contradict with scientific knowledge and create problems in
learning. In this study, the notion of misconception was used for such
preconceptions. Research carried out resulted with some findings about the main
features of misconceptions. These findings are listed below (Driver and Bell, 1986;
Driver, 1989; Mutimucuio, 1998; Widodo et al., 2002; Tyler, 2002).
• Misconceptions of students who have
different culture, religion and language arefrequently similar to each other.
• Misconceptions may deeply penetrate
into students’ minds and resist to change.
• Everyday language, culture and religion
can cause the formation of
misconceptions.
• Misconceptions can be parallel to the
explanations made by earlier scientists in interpreting scientific phenomena.
Misconceptions
may develop after a formal teaching. Many researchers came up with the same
findings during the investigation of students’ misconceptions about simple
electric circuits (Osborne, 1983; Cohen at al., 1982; Tiberghien, 1983;
Shipstone, 1984; Kärrqvist, 1985; Shipstone et al., 1988; McDermott and Shafer,
1992; Barges et al., 1999; Lee and Law, 2001; Küçüközer, 2003).
The most
frequently encountered findings are given below:
• The
concepts of current, energy and potential difference are not respected as
different concepts and used interchangeably with each other.
• Current is
consumed by circuit components.
• Current
comes out from the (+) pole of the battery and enters to the bulb where it is
consumed to light the bulb which is not affected by the second wire connected
between the (-) pole and itself.
• Current
comes out from the both poles of the battery and clashes in the bulb to light
it.
• Current is
divided equally in each line of the parallel circuits.
.Positively
charged object have gained protons, rather than being deficient in electron.
• A change
before the bulb affects the brightness of the bulb in circuit connected in
series but the same bulb is not affect by change in anywhere of the circuit
after the bulb.
• Batteries
are constant current sources.
Misconceptions
outlined above were reported in studies conducted with students in different
countries and with different age groups. Shipstone et al.’s (1988) study is an
important research, which summarizes that students in five European countries
also have similar misconceptions about simple electric circuits.
The
misconception of “current is consumed by circuit components” which is listed
above is almost reported in all studies about electric circuits. Students
sometimes may have misconceptions stemming from the use of everyday language
(Gilbert et al., 1982; Leach and Scott, 2003). Gilbert et al. (1982)
The
misconception of senior secondary student in physics can also be linked to the
teacher’s methods of imparting and evaluating physics in classrooms, the
teacher’smethod of imparting and evaluating physics is a major cause of
misconception among senior secondary school student in Nigeria.
1.2 PROBLEMS
OF TEACHING PHYSICS IN NIGERIA SECONDARY SCHOOL
A number of
deep-rooted issues has been identified which are peculiar to physics subject in
senior secondary schools and needs to be addressed. These problems, common to
senior secondary schools are:
1. Inadequacy of materials and
personnel with respect to teaching the subject.
2. Lack of laboratories and Equipment
3. Inability of the teachers to
impact the subject to the student s, which might be due tothe problem of
teachers’ qualification and effectiveness.
4. The overloading of West African
examination council syllabus.
5. Shortages in the supply of physics
teachers and poor environments in which physics practical are taught.
6. The ability of this subject to
inspire and interest pupils, particularly girls; and other factors such as
careers advice which affect pupils’ desire to study physics at higher levels.
7. The inflexibility, irrelevance
and repetitiveness of the curriculum;
8. The lack of engagement in debate
and quiz in this subject
9. The limitations on practical and
fieldwork
10 .
The low educational value of coursework
11 .
Non implementation of ICT in science teaching.
12 The shortage of qualified science
teachers is a well-known problem.
The increasing demand for science graduates in other more lucrative sectors and
the decreasing number of graduates in these subjects means that we are caught
in a seemingly endless cycle of decline in specialist science teachers
13. Insufficient account taken of pupils'
previous learning and attainment, including what they had already learned in
primary school;
14. Some tasks set for pupils were either too
difficult for them or insufficiently challenging
15. Insufficiently high teacher expectations of
the pace of pupils' learning and of the quality of presentation of their
written work.
1.3 STUDENT
PERFORMANCES IN PHYSICS
Performances
of students at the senior secondary school level have been the concern of
government and parents. Theperformance of student in physics has deteriorated
for the past few decades due to certain factors, which are:
· Teacher’s deficiency in various
contents they teach which affect the quality of learning and performance of the
student.
· The effects of laboratory facilities
and resources also have a major influence on the performance of students in
physics at this level.
· Student’s interest and achievement in
Physics at secondary school level lie within the teacher and students’
relationship in a given subject.
· Girls and women may be regarded as late
arrivals in the scene of science in Nigeria. There is a significant differences
in performance of male and female students in Physics
· Historically, Physics has been taught
at the highschool and college level primarily by the lecture method together
with laboratory exerciseaimed at verifying concepts taught.
1.4
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The issue of
misconception in physics in senior secondary schools is a major problem that
befalls the educational sector.
Yearly,
students record massive failure in physics especially in the West African
secondary school certificate exam (WASSCE) and the newly introduced National
Examination Council(NECO) Examination.
New
effective methods of teaching and learning physics needs to be designed to curb
misconception of students in physics and to improve the academic achievement of
students in senior secondary schools.
Recognizing
effective method of teaching and learning, if considered can improve the level
of academic achievement of students in senior secondary schools physics. The
study is aimed at identifying effects of these methods on academic performance
of students and also to determine the extent to which the methods can modify or
change students’ academic performance in physics.
1.5 PURPOSE OF STUDY
The general
focus point of this research study is to make an inquiry into senior secondary
school misconception in physics. However, this study is set out to achieve
certain objectives, which is the main purpose why this research work is
embarked upon. The purpose of the study are as follows;
1.To outline
the major misconceptions of student in physics.
2.To
determine the difference between misconception of male students in physics and
female student in physics.
3.To
determine if the misconception of student in physics is dependent on student
cultural background.
4.To determine
the relationship of age and misconceptions of students in physics.
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTION:
1.What are
the major misconceptions of students in physics?
2.Is there
difference between the misconception of male and female students in physics?
3.What is
the relationship between the misconceptions of students’ in physics and their
cultural background?
4.What is
the relationship of age and students’ misconception in physics?
1.7 RESEARCH
HYPOTHESES
HYPOTHESIS 1
H01: There
is no significant difference between the misconceptions ofmale and female
students in physics.
HYPOTHESIS 2
H02: There
is no significant relationship between cultural background and misconceptions
of students in physics.
HYPOTHESIS 3
H03: There
is no significant relationship between student’s age and misconceptions in
physics.
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The
significances of this study cannot be under estimated or over emphasized.
Firstly, this study tends add to the body of general knowledge and existing
research of the subject inquiry. Secondly, this study emphasizes the urgent
need to vigorously examine the misconceptions of senior secondary school
students in science (physics). This will not only help to curb the general
misconceptions in senior secondary school, it will also enhance and improve the
student knowledge and skills in the area of science (physics) as well as
related subjects. Furthermore, this study stresses the need to implement the
national policies that will aid the training of specialized and qualified teachers
in the area of science development in Nigeria. This will further strengthen and
increase the nation’s status in terms of science development within the global
world as well as enhance the adoption of scientific application in all works of
life socially, politically and economically.
1.9 SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of
study will cover senior secondary school student, specifically senior secondary
students within the various Local Government Area of Lagos State. This study is
limited to senior secondary students only due to speculated and limited time
frame this study is expected to be carried out.
1.10 DEFINITION OF TERMINOLOGIES
Terms and
concepts are very central to the understanding of any scientific research. More
so, it is imperative to give operational definitions that will be used for the
study. This will help make the study explicit and at the same time give the
reader a thorough understanding of the central terms concept used in the study.
SCIENCE: is
a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of
testable explanation prediction about the universe.
MISCONCEPTION:
a view or opinion that is incorrect based on faulty thinking or understanding.
LEARNING: Is
a process of acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge, behaviors,
skills, values, or preference and may involve synthesizing different types of
information (Sandman et al, 2000). For the purpose of this study learning will
be restricted to the development of science.
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